A Virginia high school football player has died after suffering a heart attack on the practice field Monday — and his teammates are now paying tribute to the “positive” and “remarkable” athlete.
Sophomore Jayvion Taylor, 15, was about 40 minutes into the practice — and in the middle of light drills — when the young student-athlete took a water break, then dropped to the ground just 10 feet from a coach, a Hopewell High School spokesperson told CBS 6 Richmond.
A pair of coaches performed CPR and called 911, the statement said. Paramedics arrived quickly, and brought Taylor to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“We respect the privacy of the family during this time, but do want to share that this 15-year-old young man was considered one of the most genuine and remarkable students our staff have ever worked with,” a statement from the school said.
“He was considered a ‘light’ to all who met him and left a lasting impact,” it continued, adding that the entire community was mourning the boy’s loss.
His friends and teammates remembered him in similarly glowing terms, saying he was a funny, encouraging kid who always showed up for his friends.
“He was straight positive, like one of the best guys I’ve ever know,” teammate Orrin Besley told the station.
“I went to the back of the field, and I saw everybody around here,” said another teammate, Cory Seacat, who was on the field when Taylor collapsed. “Couldn’t get close to him. I heard it was Jay, we had to take a knee. They told us to get to the locker room. We just prayed.”
Another classmate Chase Stith told CBS, “I thought he still was going to make it, and fight through this, because he’s one of the strongest people I know, I thought he was going to make it through it.”
“It didn’t matter who you were. If you were one of the most known people of the school, or if you were somebody who wasn’t talkative, he would try to get to know you and understand you.”
It’s not clear if the heat played a part in his death — temperatures floated around 88 degrees Monday afternoon, with a heat index ranging from 90 to 98 degrees, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Brent Pry, the head coach of the Virginia Tech college football team, said during an unrelated press conference that his thoughts and prayers were with Hopewell.
“I’m not sure how many of you are aware … about the tragedy there yesterday with one of their young football players,” Pry said.
“I can’t imagine for that team, the coaches, the players, the high school, the community … so thoughts and prayers there with [the coach] and his team.”
Hopewell students — who returned in late July to classes at the high school, which is about a half-hour southeast of Richmond — were given off because of an issue with the building’s air conditioning, according to WDBJ 7 in Roanoke.
The district has also offered grief counseling to staff and students who need it.
Some have criticized the school because it did not have an athletic trainer on the field — the last one had been let go, and the school had not replaced them yet, according to CBS.
The school said in a statement that its contract for athletic training services doesn’t start until next Monday.
