Fennville, Michigan - One minute, a perfect shot to end a perfect season. The player only 16 stars, lifted the floor in celebration. Teens triumphant, jubilant crowds, the district playoffs to come, the future open range.
Next: Leonard Wes has a gym floor, has an enlarged heart, his life, dying a few moments after his victory accommodation. bleachers bag suddenly shaken by an incident that has made basketball seem remote, insignificant memory.
One day after Leonard died of an enlarged heart, this small city near Lake Michigan remembered an "all-American boy" whose sport had been heroic local legend since college when rival coaches sometimes asked to see birth certificate does not believe someone so young could be so talented.
"It was a good guy, a good friend to have a good person and hanging out with," DeMarcus said McGee, who played football and basketball with Leonard, sobbing. "I never thought I could be him. I was so healthy. It should not happen."
On Thursday night, Leonard sent the ball into the basket from close range with less than 30 seconds left in the game. The final blow was a 57-55 victory over top high Fennville Bridgman and a regular season 20-0.
After the teams exchanged handshakes, the players celebrate Fennville. Some have begun to organize a team of image encryption, which celebrate their unbeaten record. Then the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Leonard has collapsed, and about 1,400 fans watching.
"Thirty seconds earlier, he lay in the tank to win," said Ryan Klingler, Fennville basketball coach, about 200 miles west of Detroit. "And then 10 seconds later ... all that came out from under you, anywhere."
Leonard was taken to hospital near Holland, where paramedics performed CPR before he was pronounced dead. An autopsy performed Friday by the Ottawa County Examiner doctors showed Leonard died of cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart.
"He should not have been such," teammate Adam Siegel said. "To young people."
The coroner said David Leonard Start stress placed on his heart through the Athletics could not play the role, but his death would not be easy to explain.
"Why is this event like no other basketball or football, I do not know," said Grand Rapids Press Run. He did not return calls from The Associated Press.
Grief counselors were available Friday for students at school. Delivery trucks drop trays of flowers. Students made signs in tribute to Leonard and planned for display in the hallways.
Many who knew Leonard said that the amount of young athletes. It 'was the top performer in baseball and football, too.
Vicki Lepior, which owns the shell company that in the past baseball coach with Leonardo when he was a fourth-grader.
"When I saw him on the floor, I told the guys," You better go back to the box just a little ', "said the boy Lepior called" Big Man, Wes. "
"It was just a kid that everyone loved, and not a mother on earth who does not feel (his mother) feels."
VanHuis Chad who has officiated baseball games Leonard Middle School, remembers opposing coaches who want to see her birth certificate.
"It 's been very kind. It was the most beautiful child. You would think that his star potential, because he's so talented, it would be presumptuous, but he never really had that" VanHuis said.
When he reached the top Fennville, Leonard has really taken off, playing as a starter for three years on the football team, first as a receiver, then as a quarterback and defensive end.
"He had a personality that, when people around him, he played better," said Tim Schipper, Leonard football coach. "Everyone played better around him because he was a leader and the best athlete."
Schipper Leonard expected to take his talent in college athletics at some level, although its prospects are unclear.
Leonard, who played basketball in his first year and then spent two seasons as a starter, led the Blackhawks in the 2010 season.
"It was just an extraordinary child," said Klingler. . What is peculiar, had a passion for everything he did is what separated him -. His passion, had a passion for racing was a passion at its best .. "
A visit to Leonard has been set for Sunday with a funeral Tuesday.
Fennville team is to compete in the Class C district playoffs Monday, but officials from more than 400 high school students have yet to decide Friday whether to play the game.
"This is the way the road" Klingler said. "We want to make sure we are all well and healthy before deciding anything."
Leonardo's mother, Jocelyn, is a choir teacher in high schools and colleges and production manager Fennville Top "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." A music show scheduled for Friday was canceled, and is not known whether Saturday and Sunday was going to happen, either.
Fennville Superintendent Dirk Weeldreyer remember Leonard as "the quintessential boy All-American."
"Beyond their exceptional athletic abilities, Wes was a better person," said Weeldreyer. "His colleagues liked and respected him. His sentence speaks volumes about the high esteem in which Wes has occurred."
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