ORANGE, Texas, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Southeast Texas high school football coaches said they were in mourning Sunday after the sideline collapse and subsequent death of prep star Reggie Garrett.
Garrett, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior quarterback for West Orange-Stark High School in Orange collapsed on the sidelines Friday after throwing a touchdown pass. He later died at Memorial Hermann Baptist Orange Hospital, authorities said.
"It's got to be the worst thing a football coach can go through," Friendswood High School Coach Steve Van Meter told the Houston Chronicle.
"There's no question about that. Our kids are numb this morning about it, because it's a fellow Texas high school football player," said Van Meter, whose team had recently played West Orange-Stark.
"It's just awful, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the whole West Orange-Stark family," Corby Meekins, football coach at Westfield High School in Houston, told the newspaper.
Meekins went through a similar situation when his team's starting linebacker was shot and killed before a scrimmage in 2007.
An autopsy has been ordered and an investigation launched into the cause of Garrett's death, The (Orange) County Record reported.
