Friends and family at Downey High in Los Angeles County held a vigil on Saturday night for 16-year-old Dodi Soza, a junior at the school who died earlier in the day after collapsing during a junior varsity game two days earlier at Lynwood.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. County Coroner’s will investigate the death.
According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, paramedics were called to Lynwood at 3:24 p.m. last Thursday after Soza went down during the game. He was first taken to St. Francis Medical Center and then transferred to Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach. He was listed in critical condition on Friday.
Soza is the second football player to be lost in Southern California so far this season. In August, during the start of practices at Canyon of Anaheim, 14-year-old freshman Mitchell Cook approached his freshman coach while warming up and told the coach he wasn’t feeling well. He laid down, stopped breathing and later died. According to numerous media reports, Cook had been cleared to play despite suffering from a condition in which one of his heart valves fails to close properly.
