An Arizona high school football player tragically died from injuries sustained on the field while playing the last quarter of his career Saturday.
Charles Youvella, a senior at Hopi Junior Senior High School in Keams Canyon Ariz., was playing in a Division V playoff game for the Bruins, when he suffered an injury during the game, said Chuck Schmidt, associate executive director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association — the governing body that oversees Arizona interscholastic athletics — told the Daily News Tuesday.
The running back, who scored his team’s only touchdown in the game, collapsed during the fourth quarter. He was taken to a hospital in Phoenix where he died Monday.
Youvella was tackled many times during the game and the AIA is awaiting a state Medical Examiner’s report before they speculate as to what specific hit caused the fatal injury, Schmidt said.
“It’s a tragedy,” said the school’s coach Steve Saban to TV Station 12 News in Phoenix. “It’s like a bad dream. I can’t put into words the whole situation. It was unbelievable.”
Youvella, one of the team’s captains, was listed as 5-foot-5 and weighed 115 pounds. He played running back and defensive back and ran for 686 yards on 50 carries — including 13 touchdowns this year, according to his page on MaxPreps.com.
“Pound for pound, by far the toughest kid I ever coached,” Saban told the station. “He had the heart of a lion. He was 5-5 and 115 pounds ringing wet. But he played 10 times that size.”
The school, which is in the middle of a the Hopi Native American reservation in northeastern Arizona, had its best record in school history and made the playoffs for the first time in years, but was the 16th seed facing the number one overall Arizona Lutheran Academy in the first round game Saturday. The school, which only has 17 players, lost 60-6.
“They played their hearts out and did a super job,” Schmidt said. “It was a big deal for them to make (the playoffs).”
Youvella’s family declined to speak to the media as they prepare for the funeral on Friday, Schmidt said.
He added this is the first time in memory they have had a football player die during a game.
The school’s Business Manager Patrick Secakuku told The News the seven to 12th grade school of only 650 students is a tight knit community.
“Everyone knows everybody,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to deal with at the school, but people are doing well (dealing with the tragedy).”
Schmidt said the AIA has catastrophic insurance with a death benefit to help the family with its expenses. The school will also set up a Bank of America account under the name Charles Youvella to anyone wishing to make a donation.
The death comes at a time when head injuries in football are attracting attention at all levels of the sport.
The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council two weeks ago called for a national system to track sports-related concussions and answer questions about youth concussions.
The report said 250,000 people age 19 and younger were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports- or recreation-related brain injuries in the country in 2009. That was an increase from 150,000 in 2001.
With Daily News Wire Services
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