Ma didn’t want tragic kid to pursue grid ‘passion’

SHE DIDN’T want her 14-yearold son to play football, but she relented because he loved the game so much. Then he died in the Bronx on his second day of practice.

Dominick Bess, an incoming freshman, likely died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday. When she saw her son’s body on Wednesday, his mother was emotionally crushed.

“His mom didn’t want him to play, but that was his passion,” the teen’s grandmother Meldora Farrell, 61, said Wednesday. “It was rough for his mom today when they had to identify him in the morgue. It was very rough. That’s her baby.”

Longtime Mount Saint Michael Academy head coach Mario Valentini told police that Dominick (photo) had just finished a series of sprints and was returning to the field after a water break when he collapsed, sources said.

He was wearing a T-shirt and shorts but no pads when he dropped to the ground at about 9:30 a.m. Valentini, 65, told police he called 911 right away and medical staff began working on him.

Bertram Meade, Dominick’s uncle, told the Daily News Tuesday that he was told by a teammate that his nephew collapsed while running laps at the all boys school in Wakefield.

“He mentioned that he was a little tired,” said Meade, 56, on Tuesday. “They said one more lap and that was it ... They did everything they could at the school — CPR, everything.”

It was 79 degrees and the humidity hovered around 82% when the teen collapsed.

Dominick’s mom, Georgette Meade, a paralegal at a law office, told cops she was at work when the coach informed her what happened, sources said.

When she got to the hospital, her boy was already dead, sources said. She said he had no known medical issues and had his last physical a year ago. He had been cleared to play football.

The city medical examiner performed an autopsy; the results were still pending late Wednesday.

The family is waiting to receive the body before finalizing plans for the funeral, Farrell said.

“He didn’t even start school yet. He just graduated and got a scholarship to go there,” she said.

Farrell said Dominick’s 17-year-old brother, T’Andre, has been stricken with grief.

“Nobody could get to him,” she said. “We had to pound on the door to ask him to come out. When he came back from identifying his brother, it was terrible.”

Approached late Wednesday, the older brother could barely speak.

“I don’t think I’m ready yet,” he told The News.

Dominick and his teammates were scheduled to be on the field from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for socalled “double sessions.”

Both the NCAA and the NFL have banned two-a-day practices, based on research that shows a higher rate of death and injury during August preseason drills.

“Our practice complied with all state guidelines, and we carefully monitor the real field temperature to ensure it remains below the safety threshold,” school President and CEO Peter Corritori said in a statement.