Robert Garza, 16-yr-old baskeball player, becomes 3rd high school athlete in month to die after game

BY Lukas I. Alpert
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, March 14th 2011, 11:33 AM

Martinez/AP

Roma High School's Robert Garza collapsed during a Texas tournament game and died an hour later

For the third time this month, a high school athlete has died during or immediately after a game.

The latest was Robert Garza, 16, a basketball player at Roma High School in Texas who collapsed during a timeout at a tournament in Austin.

"It's unexplainable," Arnold Martinez, coach of the Hoospters, a South Texas club team, told the Monitor of McAllen newspaper. "He got a glass of water. He high-fived \[a teammate\] and then it just happened. He collapsed."

Paramedics rushed to give Garza CPR, but he died at a nearby hospital just over an hour later.

"Robert was a great, great human being," said Abelardo Escobar, another coach. "I'm very, very sad. The Lord asked for an angel to come to Him today. He took care of his body. He ate all the right things. I don't know how to explain it."

Garza's death comes after 16-year-old Michigan basketball player, Wes Leonard, died on March 3 of cardiac arrest after nailing the winning shot in overtime.

Two days later, 17-year-old Colorado rugby player, Matthew Hammerdorfer, who had a heart condition, died after going into cardiac arrest during a match


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