HS player saves perfect season by making game-winning shot -- then dies.

What a sad story...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/04/wes-leonard-dies-fennville-high-school_n_831223.html

 

And today's the 21st anniversary of Hank Gathers' death. Eerie.

 

Wow. That's terrible. 16 years old, a star two-sport kid. Collapsed during the celebration.

Just unfair.

Here's what the local paper has: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/facebook_news/x2022445591/Fennville-basketball-player-Wes-Leonard-collapses-on-court-after-victory

 

In that story, fans let cold air in. Complete opposite of what you should do, unless the kid had a burning fever.

 

When I first saw this on the wire last night, I thought he might have been trampled by the crowd charging the court. The local story indicates the same, but goes on to mention he'd been sick during the week.

 

Second kid to die under screwy circumstances in about a year there. Something cynical in me says something ain't right...

 

The kid died doing what he loved.

 

Awful story. Looking at video of game winning shot was like a scene from Hoosiers.

 

Wes Leonard is now trending on Twitter.

And Killick, do you recall what happened with the other kid? Or was it in the story and I missed it?

 

Also this is a coaches worst nightmare. I know a guy who lost a track runner during a practice. He said he thinks about it every day.

 

He was a wrestler who had a seizure at home after a match.

This kid was recovering from the flu. A few months ago a kid on one of the real good teams in Minnesota collapsed, didn't have a pulse at the gym but somehow lived. Still hospitalized, has had several open-heart surgeries but is slowly recovering. But doctors believe the virus he had in December was a cause of his collapse.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/zachgabbard/journal

 

Oh man, brutal. Just brutal. But, as someone said earlier, he died doing what he loved. I suppose there are worse ways to go out.