Garden Grove High Football Player Dies After Game Injury

Boy, this is gonna be tough on that school:

Coroner officials are scheduled to release the cause of death later this afternoon for Garden Grove High School football player Kevin Telles who died Friday night after he was injured during a Garden Grove-Westminster game at Westminster High School.

The nature of his injuries and cause of death are currently unclear.

Telles, a 17-year-old senior fullback and linebacker, was injured on a play toward the end of the game. He did not get up and was seen convulsing.

Former Garden Grove High School football head coach Ron Vander Sluis, now athletic director at La Quinta High School, was at the game and went to the hospital.

"(Telles) was down on the field, motionless," said Vander Sluis, who coached Garden Grove last season and knew Telles and all of the current Garden Grove players. "They cut off his jersey and his shoulder pads, and did CPR on him."

Vander Sluis said efforts on Telles took 30 minutes before Telles was taken to Huntington Beach Hospital, where Telles died.

Game officials ended the game at that point. Garden Grove won, 9-0.

I went to school in the Garden Grove District, but not Garden Grove High School. When I was a kid my church buddy's father was the principle there and he and I used to go to a number of games there when I was still in elementary or junior high. Those high school players looked like giants to me then.

We'd go on the field after the game and throw a mini-football around. Lots of fun as a kid, and I still feel a connection to that school even though I never attended there.

My sympathies to the Garden Grove High family.

UPDATE: Here's more on the student.