RIBET ACADEMY MOURNS ATHLETE; 17-YEAR-OLD COLLAPSED DURING BASKETBALL PRACTICE.Byline: Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer High school basketball player Lawrence Jenkins had waited months for Ribet Academy's first game on Tuesday. But family members and classmates Classmates can refer to either:
``It's a loss we'll never really get over,'' said Ronald L. Siers, the private school's administrator. Jenkins, a starting center on the varsity team In the United States and Canada and UK, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, or high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of , went into cardiac arrest cardiac arrest n. Abbr. CA A sudden cessation of cardiac function, resulting in loss of effective circulation. Cardiac arrest A condition in which the heart stops functioning. around 5 p.m. Monday while doing wind sprints during a practice in the school gymnasium, school and hospital officials said. He was taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital, where doctors tried to revive him for more than 2-1/2 hours. The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. resident was pronounced dead just before 8 p.m. The varsity basketball team had been in the middle of a light practice typically held the day before a game. Players did basic drills and wind sprints. On the third sprint, Jenkins fell to one knee. ``I saw he needed help. That's when everything happened,'' said assistant basketball coach Keith Walk-Green, who rushed to Jenkins' side. From that point on, the coach said, all he could do was hold Jenkins. Jenkins was unconscious but breathing. When paramedics took him to the hospital, team members believed Jenkins just needed to get his wind back and would be ready to play Tuesday's first game. But within hours, Jenkins was pronounced dead. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office is expected to complete an autopsy within several days to determine the cause of death. Jenkins had not complained of pain before he collapsed and had been in good health, school officials said. Basketball players are required to undergo physical examinations to play on high school teams. Seventh- through 12th-graders were ushered into an assembly when they arrived at school on Tuesday. Administrators told students that their classmate had died and offered grief counseling
Loss and grief are inevitable at some time in everyone's life [1] and at any age[2]. . Many students went home, Siers said. A red carnation and a yellow daisy yellow daisy: see black-eyed Susan. were placed in the gym where Jenkins collapsed. Dozens of students signed a letter to the coaches and team expressing their grief. Students placed a box of doughnuts, which Jenkins loved to eat, along with the letter, pictures and more flowers on a table in the gym. School officials decided to cancel Tuesday's game against Pioneer Baptist School in Norwalk. The varsity team is expected to play its first game Thursday. ``They're ready to play in Lawrence's memory,'' Walk-Green said. `They're going to have Lawrence in every one of them.'' When funeral arrangements are finalized, the school will charter buses to make sure all students have an opportunity to attend. As word spread that Jenkins died, the mood turned somber at the Burbank school, said head basketball coach Eli Essa. Jenkins had transferred to Ribet Academy on San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the city and county of Los Angeles. It starts off in Castaic as The Old Road, passing through Santa Clarita and the Newhall Pass, where upon its intersection with Sierra Highway near the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and the this fall after playing basketball for three years at Bellarmine-Jefferson High School Bellarmine-Jefferson High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Burbank, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Background Bellarmine-Jefferson in one of two Catholic high schools in Burbank. in Burbank. He was a mild-mannered, respectful player who loved basketball, Essa said. He was a player who could have performed better if he wasn't so nice, Essa said. ``He was the kind of kid who would knock two kids down for a rebound and then stop to pick them up,'' Essa said. ``He was a gentle giant.'' Jenkins transferred to the school just south of Glendale because he wanted to maximize his opportunities to get into a good college, Siers said. Hours before practice on Monday, Jenkins had completed his University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). application. ``He was smart enough to realize grades come first, sports come second,'' Siers said. Along with making the varsity basketball team, Jenkins joined the mock trial A simulated trial-level proceeding conducted by students to understand trial rules and processes. Usually tried before a mock jury, these proceedings are different from Moot Court proceedings, which simulate appellate arguments. group, and the Journalism and Freedom clubs. ``He was immediately very close to all the students,'' Siers said. In the most recent issue of the school newspaper, The Cipher cipher: see cryptography. (1) The core algorithm used to encrypt data. A cipher transforms regular data (plaintext) into a coded set of data (ciphertext) that is not reversible without a key. , Jenkins wrote a column called, ``A Day on the Ribet Academy Basketball Courts.'' Jenkins' piece asserted that basketball practice can be tough but necessary. The final line of the article reads: ``That is life and it's hard, and so is basketball.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: JENKINS |
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