Got a call today from a family friend that their son had passed away. This very very young man passed away during a basketball game due to a heart attack. He was a very young 14 years old. RIP Max. Taken much much much too early. Every time you hear of someone this young passing it always hits a little harder. Just imagine what the family is feeling :(.
Max was a huge fan of the Lakers. We are trying to get a hold of the team to see if they could do something for him. If anyone around here could help with that please PM me. Just a simple mention at the game would be great.
FAIRFIELD — The hall around Maxwell King’s Fairfield Freshman School locker Wednesday was filled with remembrances about the 14-year-who always had a smile on his face and loved the Los Angeles Lakers.“You’re in heaven – now watch over us king of the people and their heart(s),” wrote Cheri Wamley on one poster.
“Fly high Max. We’ll miss you so much. No one can replace you. Stay gold,” Emily Knowles wrote on another.
King of Fairfield Township collapsed Monday after playing basketball at the East Butler County Family YMCA in Fairfield Township shortly after 8 p.m., said Karrie Gabbard, district executive director.
King had been playing a pickup game of basketball during open gym when he walked into the hallway to get a drink and collapsed. Staff members and a bystander began administering CPR and an automatic external defibrillator on site delivered one shock before paramedics arrived, Gabbard said.
He was initially taken to the Liberty Township campus of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and later transported to the main hospital, where he died early Tuesday afternoon.
An autopsy was to have been performed by CCHMC, according to a spokesman for the Hamilton County Coroner’s office. It was known when results would be available.
“It’s so devastating. Max was a regular member. Our members are an extension of the Y family,’’ Gabbard said. “Our hearts go out to the family. The YMCA wants to extend our thoughts and prayers to the family…to support them in any way so they can make it through this.”
As soon as students started arriving in school Wednesday morning and learned of King’s death, they began making posters and writing letters in the cafeteria, school officials said.
Students came up to one another and started hugging. Many went to King’s locker, tears welling up in their eyes.
“Shock. Utter disbelief,’’ said Principal Katie Pospisil, tearing up. “His positive energy, his charisma – every single student was drawn to him. As far as we knew he had no health problems.” In Adam Ward’s first-period American history class King’s empty desk was a stark reminder of what had happened.“There was a lot of reflecting going on,” Ward said. “Not much work was going on. The kids were talking to counselors or each other. They were in shock. He was just a great kid.”
Students in Beth Toerner’s sixth-period English class immediately began writing letters and notes on a poster. It will stay in the classroom at least through the end of the week so students can add to it before it is given to King’s family.
“He’s still a part of our class and will be,’’ Toerner said. “He’s a great student. He’ll be missed.”
King’s locker was just outside counselor Craig Harden’s office. Every day he would watch classmates slap him on the back or give him high 5’s.
“I saw him every day, several times a day,” Harden said. “He’s such a good kid, no enemies. There’s a lot of kids who thought of him as their best friend – he was that well liked and loved outside his core group of friends.”
A memorial vigil for King will begin 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Fairfield East Elementary School, 6711 Morris Road, Fairfield Township. Participants are asked to wear purple and gold and bring candles and balloons of the same color.