RAYMOND – A Hinds Community College student has died after collapsing on the school’s football practice field. William Huzzie, 22, was pronounced dead at Central Mississippi Medical Center Tuesday after he reportedly stopped breathing on the field.
Authorities said Huzzie, who was originally from Orlando, Fla., enrolled at Hinds in January 2010.
Although Huzzie was not a member of the football team, school officials from HCC said he was hoping for a walk-on try out.
After the team finished a limited contact practice Tuesday, April 6, reports said Huzzie decided to run short sprints with the team. School officials said after doing so and talking briefly with a few teammates, Huzzie reportedly had trouble breathing and a trainer called for an ambulance. Huzzie was transported to Central Mississippi in Jackson where he was pronounced.
The cause of Huzzie’s death is unknown.
Huzzie is the second Mississippi athlete to die this year after having trouble on the football field. On Feb. 18, Bennie Abrams collapsed after a 15 minute workout at Ole Miss. Abrams, 20, had joined the football team in January. He was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford later that day.
Abrams cause of death has not been determined.
Hinds is the largest community college in the state of Mississippi with an enrollment of about 19,500 students. Printed reports said the school provided counseling for members of the football team and other students Tuesday and Wednesday to help them deal with the loss of Huzzie.
Reports also said that Huzzie played semi-pro football for the Orlando Rage as a starting offensive lineman during the 2008-2009 season.
As news of Huzzie’s death began to circulate, thoughts of shock and sadness flooded a Facebook page designed by friends in his honor. One member who identified herself as Huzzie’s sister, Jasmine, wrote:
“…man i cnt believe i lost my brutha man..dis is jus too crazy. i’m still waitin to wake up frm dis bad dream n see his smile again..eventhough we luk alike i wanna see it on hym. i cnt stop cryin n i jus feel so lost..”
On his personal Facebook page, Huzzie said he graduated from Ocoee High School in 2006 and described himself as a “Scorpio coming out of the Big “O”. Huzzie said he was “living and learning day by day…making choices…to get to my goal in front of me.”
One friend posted on Huzzie‘s tribute page: “i was standing right over him when he left us,i was with him the whole time he started to go in his accardiac arrest and i watched him stop breathing, i tired to help him i tried! and this weekend when he was at my house all me and him talked about was football, and how he was going to make it in football but he was g…oning to rap,man its hard for me just to realize your gone in the short time ive know you big dawg you became my brother, and somebody i look up to, man its crazy if i would have know this would been the last time i would have told you to stop running, but i didnt and even if i did you wouldnt have listened because thats the type person he was dedicated and sold out to find a purpose in life smh i love you big dawg.” – Jim Chappell
Another post simply conveyed what so many others on the site seemed to be feeling:
“I feel like im dreamin and cant wake up from a nightmare!!! I got a BIG headache just constantly cryin.” – Nadia Bell
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