A New York high school football player died Wednesday from a head injury he sustained after slamming into another player during a game, Newsday reported.
Guard and Linebacker Tom Cutinella, of Shoreham-Wading River High School on Long Island, was playing in a varsity game Wednesday evening when he collided with a member of the opposing team and collapsed, authorities told the newspaper.
The 16-year-old junior was rushed to Huntington Hospital where he was pronounced dead after undergoing surgery. Dozens of students, teammates and family members waited hours in the hospital's intensive care waiting room only to break down in tears and screams when they heard the news.
"We're a small community and we're all devastated," Jack Costas, who sits on the school board, told Newsday. "It's always tragic when someone so young and so full of life has their life ended. It's going to be a very, very difficult road ahead form this."
The football game in Elwood, Long Island, was halted in the third quarter when Cutinella collapsed on the field at around 6 p.m. His team, the Wildcats, was in the lead with a score of 17-12 against the John Glenn High School Knights.
"It was a big hit," Matt Millheiser, Shoreham's head football coach, told Newsday after No. 54 left the field in an ambulance.
Cutinella, also a member of the lacrosse team, played football since the ninth grade and joined the varsity team this season. He was said to be an exceptional student and was a member the Natural Helpers program, which gives advice and support to peers in need.
"He excelled academically, had a great sense of humor and was just a great individual overall," Shoreham-Wading River Superintendent Steven Cohen told the newspaper.
Football has recently come under national scrutiny over what critics say are the game's extreme and violent conditions. Earlier his week, a high school linebacker in North Carolina died after collapsing during warm-ups, USA Today noted.
It is not clear exactly how the collision between Cutinella and the other player occurred.
"I think that, obviously, we're going to get a full report, find out exactly what happened and do an audit of our equipment and, if there is some way to ensure safer play, then, obviously we're going to have to make some adjustments," Costas told Newsday.
