A 16-year-old Long Island high-school football player died Wednesday night after colliding with an opponent during a game, police said.
Tom Cutinella, 16, a junior at Shoreham-Wading River HS, collapsed at about 6 p.m. after taking a hit to the head during the game in Elwood, said Suffolk County Police.
The varsity linebacker was rushed to Huntington Hospital, where he died after emergency surgery.
“Thomas is my little cousin,” Ashley Ventimiglia wrote on Facebook. “Please pray for my family. The best boy I knew.”
The young gridiron star and his team were playing John Glenn HS when tragedy struck in the third quarter of the game.
An ambulance rushed onto the field as referees canceled the game.
“It was a big hit,” Shoreham’s head football coach, Matt Millheiser, said after Cutinella was taken off the field Wednesday night, Newsday reported.
Dozens of teammates, relatives and friends waited at the hospital anxiously. When news of his death came, his supporters wailed and two collapsed in grief.
“He was a great kid,” Millheiser said at the hospital.
Shoreham-Wading River Superintendent Steven Cohen said Cutinella started playing football for the district in ninth grade and made the varsity team this season. He also played lacrosse.
Off the field, Cutinella donated his time to the Natural Helpers program, a peer “helping network.” He recently took to Twitter to announce his plans to run for class president.
“He excelled academically, had a great sense of humor and was just a great individual overall,” Cohen said. “He was well-liked among students and staff, and he will truly be missed.”
Jack Costas, a member of the Shoreham-Wading River school board, said that safety issues will likely be discussed at next Tuesday’s board meeting.
“I think that, obviously, we’re expecting to get a full report, find out exactly what happened and do an audit of our equipment and, if there is some way to ensure safer play, then, obviously we’re going to have to make some adjustments,” he told Newsday.