Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday, Las Vegas High football players were allowed to say their goodbyes to critically injured teammate Edward Gomez at University Medical Center.
Running back Eric Jordan, accompanied by his father, also named Eric Jordan and a local high school football star in the 1970s, walked into the sterile room and approached the senior safety who was on a ventilator.
Jordan said his son touched his friend's hand and told him, "Edward, I love you. We will always be with you and you will always be with us."
About 22 hours later, 17-year-old Gomez died at UMC apparently from injuries he suffered during Friday night's Sunrise Regional championship victory over visiting Desert Pines High School.
An autopsy is scheduled for today, the Clark County coroner's office said.
Jordan's father said he understands what his son and his teammates are going through because years ago, when he was a sophomore at Chaparral High, his friend, Chaparral basketball star Donny Love died during a Christmas holiday tournament.
"I told him that if this was the sport he wanted to play, he had to accept that, as tough as it is, these things happen," said the elder Jordan, a longtime Pop Warner football coach who led Chaparral to the 1978 state football title. "It is the nature of football."
He said Las Vegas High coach Kris Cinkovich asked him and other parents if their sons' team should play or cancel Saturday afternoon's 4A State Tournament semifinal at Las Vegas High against undefeated Palo Verde High.
"Coach Cinkovich was genuinely concerned that his players and their families have the proper time to start the grieving process," Jordan said. "I believe the kids want to play and should play the game."
Jordan said UMC's lobby was filled Saturday with players, parents, cheerleaders and others, when doctors told them that they had done all they could for Gomez. The well-wishers each were allowed to go into Gomez' room two-by-two and take a minute to say goodbye to their unconscious friend, Jordan said.
Gomez died at 7:15 p.m. Sunday, a UMC nursing supervisor said.
Many Las Vegas High School students only learned this morning, when they arrived on campus, that a member of their undefeated team was dead. They expressed disbelief.
"I was watching the news last night and they said he was unconscious -- I didn't know he had died," said junior Sergio Martinez. "Man, I don't know what to say.
"After the game Friday I saw a paramedic doing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on someone and thought someone must have really gotten hurt in the game."
Dejah Blue, a sophomore, said she went to school with Gomez over the last two years.
"I'm just really shocked -- he was a friend," she said. "I was at home when I got a call last night (about Gomez dying). I just can't believe it."
Cinkovich was not available for comment early today.
"It's a devastating loss," Las Vegas High Assistant Principal Debbie Brockett said. "There is no preparation -- it is just devastating. It was a shock to everyone."
Desert Pines Coach Leon Evans said his heart goes out to Cinkovich. But he, like Jordan, said football is violent. "It's the nature of the beast with the game," he said.
Fifteen football players died in the United States last year, five after on-field head injuries, according to the American Football Coaches Committee of Football Injuries. In 2001, 23 American football players died, the organization said.
About 1.5 million U.S. junior high and high school students play football and about 75,000 U.S. college and university students play the game.
A team of four grief counselors were at Las Vegas high today. Also, the school's eight staff counselors were seeing grief-stricken students, Clark County School District officials said.
Gomez appeared to suffer a serious injury on a play late in the game.
On a fourth-down play with just more than five minutes remaining, Gomez came up from his safety position to cover Desert Pines receiver Jonathan Stoldorf. As Stoldorf came deep across the middle, Gomez shot forward and put a strong hit on Stoldorf, who did not make the catch.
Both players quickly got back up, with Gomez receiving congratulations from his Las Vegas teammates for what looked like just another of his tough hits. Observers on the Las Vegas sideline said Gomez appeared to be OK for a couple of minutes before losing consciousness and collapsing.
Seconds after the final whistle blew, ambulance lights were already visible in the distance as Gomez laid flat on the sideline with a number of Las Vegas medical personnel tending to him.
The ambulance came onto the field minutes later and paramedics tended to Gomez for a few minutes before placing him on a stretcher and taking him to UMC's Trauma Unit.
The Wildcats gathered near midfield and watched as Gomez was treated. Many players sobbed before and after the ambulance drove off.
"This is a tight group," Cinkovich said Friday night. "This one hurts."
The city's oldest school has had more than its share of tragedy in recent years.
Gomez was the fifth Las Vegas High student in four years to die in a tragic incident. The other four students died in a pair of car accidents, one in 1999, the other in 2002.
On May 9, 2002, Ashley Troester, a 16-year-old unlicensed driver, was speeding back to Las Vegas High after a trip to the fast-food restaurant.
She lost control of her 1987 Ford Thunderbird convertible. The car slammed into a light pole just a mile from the campus before shearing in half. Seventeen-year-old Natasha Keeter was killed immediately while Troester died a few days later at University Medical Center.
Also in the car were students Ashley Biersach, Kiley Quinn and Aleisa Valdez -- all of whom were injured. Biersach's right leg was amputated.
In September 1999, John David Barnett, 17, and a 16-year-old friend, Stephen Schkurman, both members of the Las Vegas High band, were killed when the station wagon Barnett was driving to school early for band practice slammed into the tree at 4667 E. Wyoming Ave.
Information was not immediately available about memorial and funeral services for Gomez.
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