FRISCO — Jeff Metcalf still remembers the ultrasound, how one black and white image sent the whole room spinning.
“Oh my God, there’s two,” the doctor said.
“Two what?” Jeff asked. “Two heads? Two feet? Is there a problem?”
“No, you’re having twins.”
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Jeff, now 60, wasn’t prepared, he told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday at his Frisco home. “All I could think was: two cars, two colleges, two everything. How am I going to do this?”
At a little more than 5 pounds each, Austin and Hunter Metcalf came into the world on July 31, 2007, and Jeff had never been so enamored. It was — as any self-proclaimed “proud dad” would say — the happiest day of his life.
Identical twins, the boys were so hard to tell apart back then that Jeff would use a black Sharpie to fill in one of Austin’s toenails. Austin was older than Hunter by only a few minutes, but he took the title and responsibility of a big brother with pride. Austin, no matter what, always had Hunter’s back.
“We were one person,” Hunter, 17, said. “We did everything together, everything the same. We connected so well.”
Related:Frisco ISD student fatally stabbed at high school track meet
On Wednesday morning, Austin and Hunter were waiting out a weather delay under a tent at Frisco’s David Kuykendall Stadium, where the District 11-5A track meet was being held, when police allege Austin was stabbed to death by 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School.
Hunter said an argument broke out when Karmelo was told he was sitting in the wrong spot and needed to move. Hunter didn’t see the exact moment Austin was stabbed, but he held his twin in his arms as he died, his father said.
Jeff rushed over to the stadium to find Austin on a gurney. He saw the hole in his chest, the blood coating his skin, and knew his son wasn’t breathing.
He found Hunter next and calmed him down enough to get him in the car and to the hospital, where the doctors promised they did everything they could.
In their last moments together, Jeff kissed Austin’s cold forehead and ran his fingers through his hair.
He promised, one day, they will see each other again.
The last trip
From the moment Austin and Hunter could walk, Jeff said the brothers were involved in every sport they could find: baseball, basketball, football, soccer, track and field and jiu-jitsu. But by the time they entered Frisco Memorial High School, football had taken reign.
This year, as a junior, Austin was not only an all-district linebacker and the team’s MVP, but a member of the National Honor Society with a 4.0 GPA. Jeff said coaches were already extending offers to play college ball.
“This was going to be his year,” Jeff said.
Memorial player #11 Austin Metcalf attempts to take down Melissa player #40 Billy Heid during the Frisco Memorial High School at Melissa High School football game at the Coach Kenny Deel Stadium in Melissa, TX, on Sep 13, 2024.(Jason Janik / Special Contributor)
The brothers spent much of their time outside. Hunter remembers how, when they were younger, they’d race home from school, set their backpacks down and head right back outdoors, where they’d stay until dark.
Jeff, who has been hunting and fishing since he was 10, raised his boys to enjoy those pastimes just the same. They took their final hunting trip last weekend.
Saturday was opening day of turkey-hunting season, Jeff said, and they planned to make the most of it. While Hunter was vying to shoot his first bird, Austin had his sights set on a hog.
They were searching for turkeys when they stumbled into a handful of hogs gathered in a field and a big problem: They needed a rifle but only had a shotgun on hand.
“You’re going to have to run all the way back to the cabin,” Jeff told Austin. “This is the only way.” The cabin was a half-mile away, so Austin took off.
By the time he made it back, the hogs were still about 200 yards away. Over the course of 45 minutes, they got closer and closer — until the distance turned into 50 yards. Jeff coached Austin to rest his gun on the fence post, breathe deep and take his shot.
“You got this,” Jeff encouraged.
One hog dropped to the ground and sent six more running. Jeff had never seen Austin so elated.
Jeff said he has long taught his boys that hunting is not about shooting or killing but about the memories it allows them to create, the days it gives them to remember.
“We said our goodbyes today, and take a long lifetime of memories with us,” Jeff wrote in a Facebook post recapping the trip. “Life is about the journey.”
Musings of legacy, forgiveness
Jeff had once lost touch with his faith, but when he was diagnosed with cancer about a decade ago, he worked hard to find his way back. Through the 44 rounds of radiation, chemotherapy and surgeries, he developed a “solid understanding” of God’s role in his life: “He never leaves me,” Jeff said.
Still, it was Austin and Hunter he vowed to live for.
Related:Friends honor Austin Metcalf, victim of fatal Frisco track meet stabbing, on social media
“I needed to be here for my sons,” Jeff said. “They are my why — why I do everything I do in life.”
Jeff doesn’t pretend to know or understand God’s plan. Especially now. But he accepts it, he said, and welcomes the chance to practice forgiveness. He said he feels for the family of the alleged assailant, because “his life is over, his family will be devastated also.”
“I pray that none of this happens to another family,” Jeff continued. “If you can’t be a kind person, find one. We need more compassion, more love, more understanding, better parenting and less social media.
“It’s not the world I grew up in.”
Jeff Metcalf closes his eyes as he pauses while talking about his deceased son, Austin Metcalf, 17, on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at his home in Frisco. Austin was killed after he was fatally stabbed during a high school track meet in Frisco on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)
On Wednesday night, mere hours after Austin passed, the church Austin and Hunter attended held a vigil in his honor. Though the church’s capacity exceeded 1,500 people, Jeff said he was floored to find the sanctuary overflowing.
Knowing how many young people were in the room, Jeff decided to speak. He reminded them that in death, no one remembers how big your house was or what kind of car you drove. They remember how you made them feel.
Austin, he said, made people feel important, needed, respected and above all, loved.
“I am so proud,” Jeff said. “Of both of my sons. They were, and still are, great men.”
Funeral arrangements were pending Thursday. A GoFundMe to support Jeff and Hunter can be accessed here.
