A 14-year-old boy dies after collapsing during football practice in Alabama

NEW BROCKTON, Ala. (AP) — A 14-year-old Alabama football player died Tuesday after collapsing during afternoon practice.

Semaj Wilkins, a freshman at New Brockton High School, suffered a medical emergency at the start of practice Tuesday afternoon, Coffee County Coroner Arnold Woodham said.

Wilkins was given CPR on the field and taken to the hospital.

The teenager’s cause of death was not immediately known. The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences will perform an autopsy and it will likely take several weeks to receive those findings, Woodham said.

“Semaj was a young man who brought joy and inspiration to his peers, teammates, coaches and faculty members. His loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him,” Coffee County Schools Commissioner Kelly Cobb wrote in a statement on Facebook.

New Brockton is a town of about 1,400 people located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Montgomery.

A vigil will be held Friday night at the New Brockton High School football stadium to remember Wilkins and honor his mother.

Wilkins’ mother, Regena Johnson-Adams, told WDHN that her son was one of the most caring and easygoing people she had ever met. He was eager to play football in high school, she said.

“He just had a love for sports, period,” she told the station.

The teenager recently updated his Facebook profile with a photo of himself on the field wearing his new high school football uniform.

Temperatures in the area reached 96 degrees (35 Celsius) Tuesday afternoon, with an even higher heat index, according to data from the National Weather Service.

Woodham said the player went down early in practice and the circumstances suggested the possibility of an underlying medical problem. But he said he won’t know until the autopsy report is complete.

“We won’t make a decision until we have the final report,” Woodham said.

He said the loss was difficult for the community.

“The community of New Brockton is very small. Being in a small rural town in southeast Alabama, everybody knows everybody,” Woodham said.

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