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High school player dies after hitting winning shot

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:40 am
by PurpleMustReign
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highscho ... id=6180469
FENNVILLE, Mich. -- A western Michigan high school basketball player collapsed on the court and later died after making the game-winning shot to cap his team's perfect season.

Holland Hospital spokeswoman Deb Patterson said 16-year-old Fennville High School junior Wes Leonard died Thursday night. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

According to Patterson, paramedics were performing CPR on Leonard at the time of his arrival at the hospital. He was pronounced dead nearly 90 minutes later.

Leonard had scored the game-winning layup in a 57-55 win over Bridgman in overtime to cap Fennville's 20-0 season. Leonard fell to the ground after teammates and fans rushed the court.

Leonard scored more than 1,000 points in his three seasons at Fenville, which is about 200 miles west of Detroit. According to the Grand Rapids Press, Leonard also was the quarterback of the school's football team and led the Blackhawks to the second of the state playoffs. In October, he threw seven touchdown passes in a game.

"It's hard to stomach," coach Rocky Johnson, whose Bangor High team faced Fenville three times this season, told the Grand Rapids newspaper. "We are all hurting now.

"My son and Wes played AAU in different programs, but we saw each other all summer, all spring, and he's the kind of kid that I would make sure to say hi to him and he would go out of his way to say hi to me. He always had something good to say, all positives."
Am I the only one seeing a very disturbing trend here? This seems to happen more and more often. Is it possible it has to do with these kids pushing themselves too hard? I know some of them have asthma and heart conditions before they play, etc, but perhaps there are precautions not being followed? This is such sad news. How horrible for the family and friends of this boy.

Re: High school player dies after hitting winning shot

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 7:39 pm
by jackal
The sad thing is there are a lot of parents, schools, and coaches don't care about these kids as much as they do winning.

Re: High school player dies after hitting winning shot

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:11 am
by BGM
Many of these deaths are due to undetected heart defects, not overexertion. Because of the 24 hour news cycle and the immediacy of the internet, these are making national news rather than just remaining local or regional, so it takes on the appearance of being a new trend. The dangerous thing about heart issues like this, or a brain aneurysm, is that they can go undetected for so long, and there is usually no reason, aside from family medical history, to make detection a priority.

Re: High school player dies after hitting winning shot

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:41 pm
by Eliot
This is my friends cousin. 2 days later we played in the championship and devoted the game to him. But we lost by one