Navy, family dealing with grief

Football player dies three days after collapse

ANNAPOLIS, MD. Kara McKamey glowed with pride on Facebook early this month that her son had earned a Commander- in- Chief’s Trophy ring as a Navy football freshman. She couldn’t wait for him to return to Tennessee for spring break so she could hug him .

Will McKamey, 19, died at Baltimore Shock Trauma on Tuesday, three days after collapsing on the Navy practice field during spring drills. He had undergone surgery to alleviate bleeding and swelling on his brain. He’d had a similar condition after collapsing during a game as a high school senior in 2012, but his family said he’d been given medical clearance to return to football.

“There are no words to describe the pain our family feels right now. However, we are rejoicing that Will is now on the fields of Heaven ... running the football!” the mother wrote Tuesday on Facebook.

McKamey, a 5- 9, 170- pound slotback and oceanography major, starred at Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tenn., where his father, Randy, is the head coach.

“Just a great, young man ... just a solid Christian, a great athlete, good student,” said Ronnie Miller, executive pastor of Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Kingston, Tenn. Miller attended school with McKamey’s parents. “I have teenage sons that I would love for them to be the kind of young man that he was.”

In his senior year of high school, McKamey ran in a twopoint conversion untouched during a playoff game. But he collapsed on the sideline and spent several days in the hospital with swelling and bleeding on the brain. After recovering without surgery, McKamey told WATETV of Knoxville he was thankful for all the support. “It was almost an honor to know that everybody cared so much,” he said.

Prior to his death this week, his mother said on Facebook that he did not sustain a “bad hit of unusual extreme contact” in his final practice. She said Navy coaches had gone through video and seen “nothing more than Will carrying the football normally, doing what he truly loves.”

She said after the high school injury he was evaluated by four neurosurgeons and had CAT scans and MRI exams to rule out issues about returning to football.

“I want to be clear that the Navy football program nor us as his parents would have ever allowed him to be in a dangerous situation. We don’t know why this happened,” she wrote.

Commander John Schofield, public affairs officer at the academy, said all who apply to admission to military academies or the ROTC program undergo screening by the Department of Defense medical examination review board.

Schofield said the Brigade of Midshipmen was informed Tuesday night of McKamey’s death.

“Obviously, everyone is really shaken by it. It’s a very heartbreaking time,” Schofield said.

U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY VIA AP Will McKamey was a slotback for Navy’s football team.