Basketball star dies after winning shot in team's perfect season
(CNN) -- The score was tied. The game was in overtime. The mood, electric.
Number
35 came charging up to the net and hit a last-moment winning layup for
his undefeated Fennville High School Blackhawks to end the regular
season Thursday night with a perfect 20 wins.
The other players
hoisted their star, 16-year-old Wes Leonard, on their shoulders. The
screaming crowd charged the court to hug him. It was the biggest moment
in memory for the tiny Michigan town of Fennville.
And then it all turned to black.
Silence
fell under the harsh glare of the florescent lights. Leonard lay still
on the court, pale in his school colors. His family and coaches
surrounded him. He wasn't breathing, his friend Arista Sauceda recalled.
His heart had stopped cold.
After attempts to revive the varsity
player in the gym, an ambulance transported him to nearby Holland
Hospital. Doctors worked on him for an hour and 20 minutes.
They could not save him. By 10:40 at night, when Leonard should have been out celebrating with his classmates, he was dead.
An
autopsy Friday determined that Leonard died of cardiac arrest due to an
enlarged heart, said a statement from Dr. David A. Start, the Ottawa
County chief medical examiner.
As news of Leonard's death
spread, a small community on the banks of Lake Michigan convulsed in
shock. A moment of enormous school pride was reduced to irrelevance, a
moment of joy turned into the opposite.
A Facebook memorial page
-- R.I.P. Wes Leonard -- created Friday, quickly filled with thoughts
and prayers. "Blackhawk Down," the page said.
Sauceda described
Leonard as an affable guy, popular for his smile and jokes. He excelled
in athletics, scoring 1,000 career basketball points and playing
quarterback for the school's football team.
She said Leonard's
family moved to Fennville when he was in middle school. His mother,
Jocelyn Leonard, teaches music and is the drama director at Fennville,
and Sauceda said the family had helped bring the school community
together.
Jocelyn Leonard had canceled Thursday night's
performance of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying"
because she wanted to watch her son play in the game, reported CNN
affiliate WOOD. It was a make-up game to compensate for
blizzard-canceled events last month.
Everyone had so looked
forward to Thursday's game -- not only was it the last of an undefeated
regular season, but it pitted Fennville against Bridgman, a school that
beat them by just one point last year. It was revenge, as Sauceda put
it.
Fennville was down 14 points but came back to tie the game at
53. Leonard scored his team's last four points for the 57-55 victory.
Sauceda had screamed her lungs out during the game. She was running toward Leonard to hug him when he went down.
Tim
Breed, a spokesman for Holland Hospital and a 1977 Fennville graduate,
was also in the gym. He doesn't normally attend games, but thought he
could not miss his alma mater's perfect season closer.
When
Leonard collapsed, the crowds were asked to leave the gym. Breed was on
his way home when he was paged by a local newspaper reporter. He rushed
to the hospital to find medical teams trying to resuscitate Leonard.
Shortly
after that, a text message appeared on Sauceda's phone from a friend at
the hospital. Sauceda was about to go to sleep. Instead, she was jolted
awake, the shock so severe she wasn't even able to immediately cry.
In the morning, she stayed home from school. And wrote on Facebook:
"Wes,
you were taken from our lives too soon ... you were the most amazing
friend, I will never forget you, and how you have changed us all, I am
so thankful to have been apart of your life. Please watch over us, and
cheer us on as our boys win state! RIP # 35 WES LEONARD."
Link to the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/04/michigan.basketball.death/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
(CNN) -- The score was tied. The game was in overtime. The mood, electric.
Number
35 came charging up to the net and hit a last-moment winning layup for
his undefeated Fennville High School Blackhawks to end the regular
season Thursday night with a perfect 20 wins.
The other players
hoisted their star, 16-year-old Wes Leonard, on their shoulders. The
screaming crowd charged the court to hug him. It was the biggest moment
in memory for the tiny Michigan town of Fennville.
And then it all turned to black.
Silence
fell under the harsh glare of the florescent lights. Leonard lay still
on the court, pale in his school colors. His family and coaches
surrounded him. He wasn't breathing, his friend Arista Sauceda recalled.
His heart had stopped cold.
After attempts to revive the varsity
player in the gym, an ambulance transported him to nearby Holland
Hospital. Doctors worked on him for an hour and 20 minutes.
They could not save him. By 10:40 at night, when Leonard should have been out celebrating with his classmates, he was dead.
An
autopsy Friday determined that Leonard died of cardiac arrest due to an
enlarged heart, said a statement from Dr. David A. Start, the Ottawa
County chief medical examiner.
As news of Leonard's death
spread, a small community on the banks of Lake Michigan convulsed in
shock. A moment of enormous school pride was reduced to irrelevance, a
moment of joy turned into the opposite.
A Facebook memorial page
-- R.I.P. Wes Leonard -- created Friday, quickly filled with thoughts
and prayers. "Blackhawk Down," the page said.
Sauceda described
Leonard as an affable guy, popular for his smile and jokes. He excelled
in athletics, scoring 1,000 career basketball points and playing
quarterback for the school's football team.
She said Leonard's
family moved to Fennville when he was in middle school. His mother,
Jocelyn Leonard, teaches music and is the drama director at Fennville,
and Sauceda said the family had helped bring the school community
together.
Jocelyn Leonard had canceled Thursday night's
performance of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying"
because she wanted to watch her son play in the game, reported CNN
affiliate WOOD. It was a make-up game to compensate for
blizzard-canceled events last month.
Everyone had so looked
forward to Thursday's game -- not only was it the last of an undefeated
regular season, but it pitted Fennville against Bridgman, a school that
beat them by just one point last year. It was revenge, as Sauceda put
it.
Fennville was down 14 points but came back to tie the game at
53. Leonard scored his team's last four points for the 57-55 victory.
Sauceda had screamed her lungs out during the game. She was running toward Leonard to hug him when he went down.
Tim
Breed, a spokesman for Holland Hospital and a 1977 Fennville graduate,
was also in the gym. He doesn't normally attend games, but thought he
could not miss his alma mater's perfect season closer.
When
Leonard collapsed, the crowds were asked to leave the gym. Breed was on
his way home when he was paged by a local newspaper reporter. He rushed
to the hospital to find medical teams trying to resuscitate Leonard.
Shortly
after that, a text message appeared on Sauceda's phone from a friend at
the hospital. Sauceda was about to go to sleep. Instead, she was jolted
awake, the shock so severe she wasn't even able to immediately cry.
In the morning, she stayed home from school. And wrote on Facebook:
"Wes,
you were taken from our lives too soon ... you were the most amazing
friend, I will never forget you, and how you have changed us all, I am
so thankful to have been apart of your life. Please watch over us, and
cheer us on as our boys win state! RIP # 35 WES LEONARD."
Link to the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/04/michigan.basketball.death/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
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