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Grief at Reynolds High
Football player is on life support
Journal photo by Lauren Carroll
Reynolds football player Derrick Amos (above) cries as fellow students, teachers and other supporters release white balloons into the air in honor of Matt Gfeller. Another player, Brian Pouncey, (above left) has the number on Gfeller's jersey shaved into his hair.
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Published: August 24, 2008
Updated:
Matt Gfeller, the Reynolds High football player who was gravely injured Friday night, was being kept alive on life support at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center last night.
He was to remain on life support until extended family members arrive from out of town and suitable organ recipients were found, school officials said.
Gfeller's injury came after a block in the fourth quarter of the season opener against Greensboro Page. After he went down, he lay motionless for nearly 40 minutes on the field in Deaton-Thompson Stadium while he was attended to by trainers and physicians, including Dr. Lee Kirsch, Reynolds' team doctor.
The hit "knocked his head backward," Kirsch explained. "You don't have to get hit in the head to get a head injury. It creates a concussive effect where the brain is bouncing around the skull."
Gfeller, 15, underwent neurosurgery at the hospital, according to Reynolds Principal Art Paschal, who had left the hospital after 1 a.m. yesterday. But two hours later, he received a phone call and was told that Gfeller had taken a turn for the worse.
Paschal said he returned to the hospital, where he met Mike Propst, the Reynolds football coach, and they stayed with the Gfeller family into the morning.
"It's been a long night and an absolute nightmare," Paschal said.
State athletics officials said they couldn't recall any football injury in North Carolina as severe as Gfeller's.
Gfeller had attended Summit School, and Monday was to have been his first day at Reynolds, where he was entering as a sophomore.
His parents, Bob and Lisa Gfeller, are presidents of Reynolds' athletics booster club and were the PTSA presidents two years ago. Matt Gfeller did his Eagle Scout project at Reynolds, creating an outdoor eating area outside the cafeteria. The Gfellers also have a son, Robert, who graduated from Reynolds in June, and a daughter, Haley, who is a junior.
"I got to know Matt a little bit through his project," Paschal said, "and I have been impressed with his perseverance on his project. Bob and Lisa are good friends, and words cannot describe what kind of tragedy this is."
Yesterday afternoon, hundreds of students, teachers and friends assembled at Brunson Elementary School to show their support for Matt and his family.
They marched from the school up Cloverdale Avenue to the parking lot across from the hospital, a spot where Gfeller's family could see them from a hospital window.
Mike Meeks, the girls basketball coach at Reynolds, offered a prayer: "Right now, there are those who are hurting, who are asking why," he said. "Right now, during this moment, may we go to you, Father, and ask for your strength, your wisdom and your courage.... May we take this time to understand how life is precious and a gift from you."
The group held a moment of silence, broken only by sniffles and the whir of a helicopter taking off from the hospital roof. Then the group released a sea of white balloons that rose quickly into the air.
Players cried, and classmates hugged each other.
"You have folks who graduated long ago out here," said Jonne Hayes, the girls softball coach at Reynolds. "You have rising ninth-graders out here, teachers and coaches. We're family. What more can you say."
The group then marched back to Brunson, the players out front. When they got back to the parking lot, the players huddled, offered up a quick shout, with quarterback Jeremy Peterson in the middle holding up Matt's football jersey bearing the number 57.
Peterson, a senior, said that Matt's teammates rushed to the hospital as soon as the game ended. Several stayed up most of the night trying to comfort the Gfeller family. Football was the last thing on their minds, he said.
"It's not about coaches, it's not about community," Peterson said. "It's about Matt."
Paschal said: "The show of support for the family, the show of love for the family was very touching. But the fact that you are there on pins and needles for a 15-year-old kid, it tears at you, literally tears at you.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime, one-in-a-million hit for this to happen to a healthy kid," Paschal said. "He was healthy and well-padded. He was still breathing on the field, but basically they said the damage was done right then and there. I have never heard of anything like it."
Coach Propst struggled to comprehend the tragedy. He had coached Robert Gfeller for four years, and said that people referred to Matt Gfeller as "A Propst player."
"People would say, ‘He is your guy,' and his older brother was too," Propst said. "Just a good old, hard-nosed boy. That's my kind of guy. He did everything I said and asked questions later.
"He was just a precious kid, I swear. I felt real uncomfortable (Friday) night, and now it's about 1,000 times worse. When you know them and have been in their house, this family is not just some family. It's a family that I know real well, and I have grown to know and love them.
"Its real hard -- the hardest thing I have ever done."
Propst said that he expects to hold a meeting sometime today for the 33 varsity players and the 70 members of the junior varsity.
"I have to be a leader and be strong because those are my boys," he said. "I can't just let them slide, but it's tough."
Gfeller's injury came in the fourth quarter after being blocked by a Page player. It was the kind of routine play that happens countless times in high-school games, Propst said.
"It was a good clean hit -- nothing illegal," Propst said. "There was nothing dramatic about it. It was a regular old football play -- or it should have been."
Kirsch, the team doctor, said that what happened to Gfeller is "extremely unusual."
"Last year 1.8 million kids played high-school football, and there were three fatalities," Kirsch said. "You are more in danger driving to the mall than playing football, but it's like a plane crash -- it's so visible.
"His injuries were severe and unsurvivable from the beginning. We supported his breathing, and he had neurosurgery within minutes of getting (to the hospital)."
Kirsch, who attends most of Reynolds' practices, said he was sure that Gfeller -- listed as 5-10, 180 pounds -- had no pre-existing condition that might have triggered the injury.
"There were eye-popping hits during the game that kids bounced right up from," Kirsch said. "Sometimes it's conspicuous that a kid has done something wrong, but this was an ordinary play."
Rick Strunk, the associate executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, said he couldn't recall a player in North Carolina suffering a deadly injury on the field.
"So many things have happened to make football more safe, but it's still not 150 percent safe," Strunk said. "Something like this puts it in perspective." Kirsch said that the Greensboro Page trainers, who were the first to attend to Gfeller, did an exemplary job, as did all other attendants.
"It would appear this was a devastating injury that nothing could have been done about," Kirsch said. "That's small consolation to the mother in Forsyth County who now wonders if she ever wants her kid to play the game."
■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com .
■ Journal reporter Michael Hewlett contributed to this story.
Read the updated story: Reynolds player's death was freak accident, principal announces
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