Tragic story in Michigan

[1inStripes]

Fennville, Mich. -- A western Michigan high school basketball player collapsed on the court and later died after making the game-winning shot to cap his team's perfect season.

Holland Hospital spokeswoman Deb Patterson said 16-year-old Fennville High School junior Wes Leonard died Thursday night. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

According to Patterson, paramedics were performing CPR on Leonard at the time of his arrival at the hospital. He was pronounced dead nearly 90 minutes later.

Leonard had scored the game-winning layup in a 57-55 win over Bridgman in overtime to cap Fennville's 20-0 season. Leonard fell to the ground after teammates and fans rushed the court.

Leonard scored more than 1,000 points in his three seasons at Fenville, which is about 200 miles west of Detroit. According to the Grand Rapids Press, Leonard also was the quarterback of the school's football team and led the Blackhawks to the second of the state playoffs. In October, he threw seven touchdown passes in a game.

"It's hard to stomach," coach Rocky Johnson, whose Bangor High team faced Fenville three times this season, told the Grand Rapids newspaper. "We are all hurting now.

"My son and Wes played AAU in different programs, but we saw each other all summer, all spring, and he's the kind of kid that I would make sure to say hi to him and he would go out of his way to say hi to me. He always had something good to say, all positives."

According to the Grand Rapids Press, Fennville is scheduled to begin district play in the state's basketball playoffs Monday.

[Unchained]

More tragedy

McALLEN, Texas -- A South Texas high school basketball player died after collapsing during a timeout at a tournament in Austin, coaches said.
Roma High School junior Robert Garza, 16, was playing in the AAU tournament on Saturday with the Hoopsters, a South Texas club team, when he collapsed without any warning.
"It's unexplainable. He got a glass of water. He 'high-fived' Pablo Adame [a Hoopster teammate] and then it just happened. He collapsed," Hoopster coach Arnold Martinez told the Monitor of McAllen.
The cause of death was not yet known, Martinez said.
"During pregame warm-ups, he was dunking the ball and laughing with his teammates. Everything looked good," he told the newspaper.
Paramedics administered CPR, but Garza was pronounced dead at Austin's Brackenridge Hospital just more than an hour later, said Abelardo Escobar, Garza's high school coach. An autopsy was planned.
"Robert was a great, great human being," Escobar told the Monitor. "I'm very, very sad. The Lord asked for an angel to come to Him today. He took care of his body. He ate all the right things. I don't know how else to explain it."
Calls by the Associated Press to Martinez and Escobar went unanswered on Sunday.
Garza's high school teammate Carlos Gonzalez told the newspaper that Garza was smart and had a lot of friends.
He was quiet, but once you got to know him, he was fine.. He inspired many people, many young guys. I'm going to miss everything about him," said Gonzalez, a senior at Roma High School, which is located on the Texas-Mexico border.
Garza's death comes more than a week after a 16-year-old Michigan basketball player collapsed and died after making a game-winning shot in overtime. Wes Leonard, a junior at Fennville High School, died of cardiac arrest from an enlarged heart on March 3, moments after his shot gave the undefeated Blackhawks a victory to wrap up the regular season.