Photo:Windsor Warrior Football/Facebook
Windsor Warrior Football/Facebook
A 15-year-old high school football player died during practice this week in Connecticut, authorities said.
Coaches provided CPR until emergency personnel arrived. Rivera was transported to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, where he was pronounced dead, per the news station.
Windsor superintendent Terrell Hill told WFSB that the athlete was “not engaged in any football drills, or tackling” at the time of his medical emergency.
Teammates and friends called Rivera “Big Tex” for his appearance and because the teen had moved to the area from Fort Worth, Texas over the summer,according to CT Insider.
The youngest of eight children, he was also the tallest, his mother Chastity Hernandez told the outlet.
Born in Fort Worth, Rivera first moved to Connecticut in 2010 before returning to Texas in 2019. His most recent move back to the New England area was so that “he could better focus on school and football," his mother said.
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“He was very excited to be there,” Hernandez said. “He always considered Connecticut to be his home.”
Rivera’s cause of death has not yet been announced. An official with the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told CT Insider that an autopsy was still pending on Wednesday.
Now, the teen’s family, friends and teammates are left to make sense of his tragic death.
“A 15-year-old kid, playing a sport he loved … you can’t rationalize it in any way,” Windsor Mayor Donald Trinkstold theHartford Courant.
“He was the most kind-hearted boy,” Hernandez said about her son. “He was a gentle giant.”
source: people.com
