Tragedy strikes as player collapses, dies in Sacramento
A Sacramento high school football player has died after collapsing at a game this weekend, school district officials confirmed to the Sacramento Bee.
Emmanuel Antwi, a senior lineman at Kennedy High, collapsed on the sideline Friday night and was taken to a hospital, the Bee reported.
Sacramento City Unified School District officials announced Saturday that Antwi died.
“Today, we learned that Emmanuel Antwi, a John F. Kennedy senior athlete, died after a medical emergency during Friday night’s football game,” the district said in a release. “We do not have many details to share beyond this. Our hearts go out to Emmanuel’s family and our school community during this difficult time. We ask all to give them privacy and time for healing and comfort as they grieve.”
The medical emergency occurred in the fourth quarter of Kennedy’s season opener against Hiram Johnson.
The game was called off after Antwi collapsed, the Bee reported.
The organizer of a gofundme.com page set up to raise money for Antwi’s funeral expenses wrote, “After waiting months due to COVID, the first football game of the season was finally here! He just told his football coach that he finally got his driver’s license. He was so excited. Emmanuel “Manny” was loved by so many and he was a great young man and he definitely was too young to pass away. All money raised will be given to his mom to take care of his funeral cost and to help her take care of any bills and her other two children.”
According to data released each year by the National Federation of State High School Associations, there were 71 fatalities directly related to football at the middle and high school level from 2000-2019.
-- Darren Sabedra
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