Yet another athlete has lost their life at a young age.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s athletic department tweeted that the Warhawks’ guard Derek Gray “passed away unexpectedly on July 24th, 2022, playing the game he loved.”
He was just 20 years old.
Head coach Pat Miller said Gray collapsed during a game the team was playing with campers.
“It was horrible,” said Miller. “We have our overnight camp. At the end of our evening session, we get pizza for the campers and all our camp counselors play a game and play music, and it’s just kind of a fun thing. He collapsed during the game.”
100 campers were escorted out of the facility without becoming aware of the player’s worsening condition.
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“It was just a very surreal situation where you’re thinking, ‘Okay, he’s going to be all right,'” Miller said, “and then you’re very scared and the longer it went on, it became apparent that this was extraordinarily serious.”
Derek majored in psychology and minored in criminology, and was on pace to graduate in the spring of 2024.
Derek is survived by his parents, Traci Pine and Donneil Gray, twin brother David Gray, and an older brother, Donneil Gray Jr.
