Former youth football player remembered

Peduto honors teen who died last year

One year after 13-year-old Jordan Duckett suffered a fatal asthma attack during football practice in Pittsburgh’s Windgap neighborhood, Mayor Bill Peduto established Aug. 14 as “Jordan Duckett Day” during a memorial held for the late teen Friday afternoon at the park where he died.

Mr. Peduto, accompanied by Pittsburgh EMS Crew Chief James Dlutowski, presented Jordan’s mother, Laken Duckett, 29, with a certificate marking the day during the brief ceremony held at Chartiers Park in Windgap.

Ms. Duckett, dressed in a maroon shirt with her son’s name printed across, also announced the official establishment of the JCD (Jordan Cortez Duckett) Medical Team, a group that works to monitor safety at youth sporting practices.

“Even after my son collapsed, there have been other kids in other states that went through the same thing,” Ms. Duckett said Friday. “Kids are just being overworked, and it’s hot outside. Their conditions have been overlooked. We want to make sure there is a great magnifying glass on these things so that no one else has to die playing sports. This is something they should do for fun, to bring a highlight to their life.

“Sports should not be the death of them,” she said.

Jordan collapsed while running off the field during a team practice last August at the park and later died at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office ruled asthma as his cause of death.

Ms. Duckett described her son — who was 6 feet tall and weighed about 180 pounds — as a “gentle giant” who “wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“I’m doing much better now, because before I couldn’t talk about it, but I know God has a plan,” she said.

The newly formed JCD Medical Team, which includes about 60 doctors, nurses, nursing aides and others who are trained in first aid and CPR, will monitor games and practices, and ensure that young athletes stay hydrated and that disabilities are “taken seriously,” Ms. Duckett said. Fundraising for the group began last year, and it was made official in December, she said.

“The first school we were invited to was South Hills Middle School, which is where Jordan last attended school,” she said. “We just spoke with another college yesterday, and athletes were conditioning down there in McKinley Park.

“This is important because it could have been anyone’s child,” she said. “It still can.”

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Laken Duckett clutches a proclamation declaring Aug. 14 “Jordan Duckett Day” during a brief ceremony at Chartiers Park in Pittsburgh’s Windgap neighborhood on Friday. Her son, Jordan Duckett, was 13 when he collapsed during a football practice on Aug. 14, 2019, and later died. Ms. Duckett has established in his name the JCD Medical Team, which will monitor safety at youth practices.