An Alabama high school football player died this weekend after suffering a critical brain injury during a game.
Caden Tellier, 16, was injured Friday in Morgan Academy‘s season-opening game against Southern Academy in Selma when he was tackled, according to the religious private school’s headmaster Dr. Bryan Oliver.
The game was delayed before an ambulance arrived and took Tellier to a local hospital.
The junior year quarterback was airlifted to University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital in critical condition after the third quarter incident, Oliver told AL.com. He died from the head injury on Saturday.
“There are no words to describe how we feel as a school community and family. Caden will never be forgotten for who he was and what he means to Morgan Academy,” the school said in a statement.
Oliver said all athletic and school activities at Morgan would be canceled this week, including an upcoming football game against at Wilcox Academy.
“Everyone who knows Caden has known kindness, generosity and love, and true to his nature, he is giving of himself one more time,” the boy’s family said in a statement, referring to his organ donation status. “Lives have been touched by the way he lived and now lives will be saved through his passing.”
Tellier had passed for a touchdown and run for another before he was injured, according to the Selma Times-Journal. Morgan Academy ultimately won Friday’s game, 30-22, when play resumed.
Tellier’s death comes in the wake of at least three other high school football players dying during or after practice from heat exhaustion.
Ovet Gomez-Regalado, 15, was hospitalized and died two days after he collapsed during practice at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, Kansas, on 14 August.
Semaj Wilkins, 14, died in New Brockton, Alabama on August 13. Javion Taylor collapsed on the practice field at Hopewell High School near Richmond, Virginia on August 5.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, seven high school football players died in 2023. Three suffered traumatic brain injuries during games.