MILLINGTON, Tenn., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- News of a 15-year-old football player's death after being tackled in a practice has left his family and Tennessee high school grieving, officials said.
Dana Payne, a wide receiver on Millington High School's football team in Millington, had controllable asthma and passed all necessary physical examinations to play, family members said. He died Tuesday after he "caught a pass downfield and was tackled by a single player," the Millington Police Department said in a statement after interviewing coach Chris Michael.
Trainers tended to Payne and noticed his breathing worsening, and CPR was performed by the Millington Fire Department. Payne died at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis Tuesday evening, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Thursday.
"My son died doing what he loved to do," mother Tameka Smith said. Referring to the player who tackled him, she said, "The other boy, that's who I'm worried about."
Payne's aunt, Tangela Crawford-Chambers, agreed, saying: "My heart goes out to the other boy. I don't know how he can pick himself up and have a normal childhood from this point on."
The outpouring of grief at the school Wednesday resulted in three students taken by ambulances to local hospitals, and five others taken in private vehicles, Shelby County Fire Department spokesman Brant Perkins said.
