A football scrimmage on Saturday at Capital Christian High School near Sacramento, Calif., had to be cancelled after a player collapsed.
According to The Sacramento Bee, Trevor Loveall, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound two-way lineman for Capital Christian, got up after a pileup on a short-yardage play at Lincoln High School and then collapsed.
CPR was immediately administered by coaches and a trainer, and witnesses said it took several moments to get a pulse and to maintain it. A local fireman who has a son on one of the teams that were scrimmaging came out of the stands to assist.
Lovell was taken by ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center, where a CT scan was clear, revealing no head or neck injuries. He'll undergo a battery of tests in the coming days, and he remains in the ICU.
“Trevor’s vital signs are good. He’s stable and he’s in ICU,” Capital Christian head coach and athletic director Aaron Garcia said. “He’s not completely out of the woods yet. Nobody is really sure yet what happened. I talked to his family a lot, and they feel good about the future of his life and physical ability, but we’re all confused about what happened.”
Garcia said he was impressed with how the situation was handled.
“That was something,” Garcia said with emotion. “That was galvanizing. It really brought us together. Players were crying on the field. Our quarterback (Max Ellison) stepped up and led prayers. I was super proud and impressed with how everyone handled this. When I finally left the hospital after four hours, I had to tell all the players to go home. They didn’t want to leave.”
Lincoln High coach Allen Berg said the right thing to do, the human thing to do, was to cancel the rest of the jamboree. “I looked over at Lodi, the team that was scrimmaging Capital, and they were done, their coach too — you could see it in their faces,” Berg said. “Center said there was no way they could go on. I talked to my kids and they were drained from the experience. There was nothing left. Their faces had dropped. They were panicked. I’ve had so many calls and texts from people all day and night wondering if Trevor is OK.”
