Matt Gfeller, 15, died after a brain injury in R.J. Reynolds' season opener against Greensboro Page.
Aug 25, 2008
A 15-year-old high school football player died early Sunday from a brain injury he suffered during the season-opening game, officials said.
Matt Gfeller was playing for Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem when he was injured in Friday night's game against Page High School of Greensboro. The sophomore linebacker had been on life support at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and underwent brain surgery Saturday night.
Reynolds coach Mike Propst said Gfeller was taken off life support Saturday night and died about five hours later at 2:15 a.m. Sunday. A hospital spokeswoman said it would provide no additional information.
This was Gfeller's first year at Reynolds.
Assistant coach James Alexander said Gfeller was hit on the first play of the game nearly the same way he was hit on the play in which he was injured.
"It's the type of hit that occurs once or twice a year around the world," Paschal said.
Propst, school administrators and two pastors from local churches met with the 33 varsity players to help deal with Gfeller's death.
"I have guys I have to take care of right now," Propst said. "We have to take care of the Gfeller family and their wishes, too, but we have a football team I have to take care of and seven other coaches, and we have to get ourselves back together and be able to get through this."
Propst said that the keys to the next few days will be dealing with the grief and moving forward. He said that no decision had been made about whether Reynolds will play East Forsyth on Friday as scheduled.
On Aug. 12, Chapel Hill High School senior Atlas Fraley died after practice. At the time of his death, investigators were trying to determine if Fraley died from dehydration after participating in an early morning scrimmage.
| page 1 |
| page 1 |
This story is closed for comments.
