STAR H.S. FOOTBALL PLAYER DIES ON FIELD MAKING A ROUTINE TACKLE AFTER EARNING SCHOLARSHIP TO PLAY AT UK

DE'ANTRE TURMAN

A star high school football player who earned a scholarship to play at the University of Kentucky was tragically killed by what's being called a routine tackle during a scrimmage game.
De'Antre Turman, 16, of Creekside High School, Ga., was tackling a receiver Friday night when all of a sudden "his body just went limp," his off-season coach, Glenn Ford, told WSBTV after watching from the sidelines.

"(He) immediately just went limp and he was on the ground," Ford said. "(We were) calling out his name, just trying to get him to come back to open his eyes up to move until the ambulance got there."

Horrified witnesses say it took an ambulance 15 minutes to arrive.

The 5-foot-11, 164-pound 11th-grader cornerback who was set to graduate in 2015 with a scholarship to play for the University of Kentucky according to 247sports.com was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The Fulton County Coroner's Office confirmed he died of a fractured third vertebra - "a broken neck" according to his guardian Tarsha Keller who raised him as his own after his mother died when he was 4.

It was football, Keller said, that helped him cope with that tremendous loss in his life.

The 5-foot-11, 164-pound 11th-grader cornerback who was set to graduate in 2015 with a scholarship to play for the University of Kentucky was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

 

"That is what made him the happiest. Being the competitor and playing different sports made him happy," Keller told WSBTV.

But as his astounding athletic records show his love of the sport was mutual.

 

In May, Turman attended the RisingSeniors.com athletic camp for high school juniors before the first of what was expected to be many university scholarship offers poured in.
 
Kentucky's D1 division invitation placed him among fewer than 50 other students belonging to the class of 2015, according to ESPN.

After an astounding performance with RisingSeniors.com, Truman was invited to participate in their All-Star football game, featuring 90 of the state's top high school juniors in December.

A photo of Turman shared on the program's Facebook page Saturday expressed their grievance and a promise he wouldn't be forgotten.

"We lost a brother last night! DeAntre Turman we will make sure you are never forgotten! Our hearts are so heavy!" the message read.

After the death of his mother as a child Turman is said to have used football to cope with his loss and was expected by all to excel beyond just a star high school athlete.

Though similar football-related deaths are highly unusual, four years ago another Georgia high school football player was killed in result of an injury or collision.

Cook High School Running Back Roy White was killed in 2009 during a tackle that hit him in the chest at practice. His death is believed to be the only other one in the last decade, according to GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin speaking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  According to Dr. Daniel Sciubba, an assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, an injury like Turman's to the third vertebra can lead to paralysis of the arms or lungs.

"It can be a very freak accident," Sciubba told ABC. "It's just the fact that people are hitting each other as hard as they can and (the neck) area is not immobilized."

Turman's no. 2 jersey is now set to be retired for at least this year by the school in what's said to be only the first act to memorialize the beloved teen.

"He's one of the best kids I've ever dealt with in my 18 years of coaching, period, hands down," Johnny T. White, Creekside's head coach from 2009 to 2011 told the Atlanta Journal. "He was quiet, but always smiling. He had a real good spirit. It was always yes sir, no sir. He enjoyed his team, and he loved his teammates. Just a great kid."