A UMaine football player died during practice. It was his third week on the team.
Darius Minor, 18, who had no known health issues, collapsed suddenly. Moments later, he was dead.
It had been a dream for Darius Minor.The 6-foot-tall, 170-pound, 18-year-old football player from Locust Grove, Virginia, had excelled his senior year at Orange County High School, and bounced back from a torn ACL the year before.A wide receiver, he led the team in receiving touchdowns — 12 in total — yards — 765, altogether — and receptions — a whopping 59, The Daily Progress reports.“Running out of the tunnel with thousands of fans screaming, that is any young athlete’s dream,” he wrote on ncsasports.org, a website aimed at highlighting young athletes, according to the newspaper. “I am determined to make that my reality.”This year, he was on his way.On a full scholarship to the University of Maine (UMaine), Minor headed north to take a post on the football team as a defensive back for the Black Bears.This summer, as he took a university course, the political science major also got to work on the field, spending the past two weeks in a preseason workout with his 16 other freshman teammates.He followed along in the warm-up exercises early Tuesday afternoon at the Orono, Maine, campus’s Alfond Stadium, stopping for a water break before launching into a sled-pushing drill, according to head coach Joe Harasymiak.Suddenly, during a second water break, Minor told one coach he thought he was going to pass out — and seconds later he collapsed, Harasymiak said.Moments later, despite efforts by emergency personnel, Minor was dead.“They tried to do everything they could do to revive him, but in the end there was nothing they could do,” an emotional Harasymiak told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.Minor, a star athlete who helped his team to three consecutive postseasons during his high school years, was 18, UMaine said in a press release this week.“The Athletics Department, our student-athletes and the entire campus mourn the loss of this bright and promising member of our community,” university President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said in a statement. “We ask all to keep him, his family and his friends in your thoughts.”Minor passed both a physical at home in Virginia as well as one administered by the football team and did not have any known health issues, Harasymiak said.His body is now being reviewed by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta — standard procedure in cases of sudden or unexpected death, The Daily Progress reports.
The UMaine Police Department is handling the investigation, and the Colonial Athletic Association was notified of Minor’s death, the newspaper reports.
“It was just such a shock to all of us,” Orange County High School head football coach Jesse Lohr told the newspaper. “Darius was loved by many, and he’ll be missed for much more than what he did on the football field.”
Minor, also a gifted soccer and basketball player, signed with UMaine in February — news he shared on Twitter that received legions of congratulatory messages from coaches and friends, many who praised his talents and said the school had made an excellent choice.
#BearWitness18 🐾🏈 @Coach_Kukesh @BlackBearsFB @UMaineCoachH @CoachBirkett pic.twitter.com/UQIEhqXw3Q
— Darius Minor (@dariusminor11) February 5, 2018
The 2017 All-Central Virginia’s first-team wide receiver, Minor played as a second-team defensive back at Orange County High School in Orange, Virginia, according to the UMaine release. He was a four-year varsity starter.
“They play with a chip on their shoulder,” Minor said when he committed to play for the Black Bears, The Daily Progress reports. “They come from a similar background as me, and they feel like they have something to prove.”
A quiet and reserved young man, Minor was known, however, for a smile he wore on the field and off, friends and coaches said.
“He had one of the best smiles probably in that freshman class,” Harasymiak said. “When you got him to smile, when you got him to open up, you could truly see who he was: just a very hard worker and (he) just wanted to be his best.”
“And this was a dream for him,” he continued. “This is where he wanted to be.”
News of Minor’s death on Twitter this week garnered condolences from athletes, fans, and coaches from around the country.
Northwest sends their condolences to the family and to your program.
— NW Athletics (@NWJagSports) July 25, 2018
Thoughts and prayers to the @BlackBearsFB program and the family of Darius Minor, terrible tragedy #RIP
— Stonehill Football #DIG (@StonehillFB) July 26, 2018
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Maine football family and the family of Darius Minor.
— Carmen Felus (@cfelus) July 25, 2018
UMaine Interim Athletics Director Jim Settele said the school conducted an informal investigation regarding Tuesday’s workout, The Portland Press Herald reports.
“Their conclusion is that appropriate protocols were followed,” Settele said. “We will take a closer look at the entire event to see if there’s anything that we could improve on. We need to learn from this experience.”
There were no updates on the incident Thursday, a UMaine spokeswoman told Boston.com in an email.
Harasymiak said Wednesday he spoke to Minor’s mother by phone that morning and told her the team and university is there for her and her family should they need anything.
Upperclassmen spent Tuesday night in the freshman dorm to support their younger teammates, school officials said. Freshman training was canceled for the rest of the week, and players were sent home.
“The biggest message from me to (the players) was to just be emotional, be yourself,” Harasymiak said. “You should cry, you should laugh, and you don’t need to be a 18-year-old, 20-year-old tough football kid right now. That’s not what this is about. It’s about Darius and his family and us coming together to celebrate his life.”
As the team continues to come to terms with the loss of one of their own, Harasymiak said he has made one decision: No other player will wear Minor’s No. 39 in the coming years.
“That number will be his, because it is his,” he said. “He’ll live with us for the next four years, until when he [would] have graduated.”
