Death of Athlete a Suicide : College football: Body of former Orange Lutheran standout Gil Greene is found at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Gil Greene, a 1990 Orange Lutheran High graduate and sophomore defensive back at the U.S. Naval Academy, was found dead in a campus shower stall at Annapolis, Md.

The state medical examiner’s office in Baltimore ruled the death Thursday “suicide by hanging.”

Greene, 21, played sparingly for Navy last season and was in the process of resigning from the academy, academy officials said. Sports information director Tom Bates said the athletic department had granted Greene his release last week so he could transfer to a school on the West Coast.

Academy spokesman Mike John said Greene was “having some academic difficulties,” but he did not know whether Greene was in jeopardy of falling below the school’s minimum 2.0 grade-point average.

“We really consider this a tragedy,” John said. “We don’t have situations like this very often. We pride ourselves in taking care of our own. We’re taking this very, very hard.”

Greene, whose older brother, Gaylord, is a senior football player at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., grew up in Santa Ana and was a standout in football, basketball, track and field at Orange Lutheran.

“The whole school is in shock,” said Orange Lutheran Athletic Director Bob Dowding, who was Greene’s football coach. “We’re all sitting here and asking, ‘Why?’ I don’t know what was going through his mind. Maybe it was all the pressure involved with the academy and all. None of us really know.”

In an interview before the Dec. 5 Army-Navy game, Gaylord Greene said he talked Gil into remaining at Navy last fall after his younger brother expressed a desire to quit. Gaylord Greene was en route from West Point to Annapolis Friday and could not be reached for comment.

A Navy source said Gil Greene left no note. An academy staff member found his body at about 11 a.m. Thursday in a private shower stall of one of the coaches’ offices in Ricketts Hall, which houses a visitors’ center, weight room and ticket and coaching offices. Officials said there was no evidence to suggest foul play.

Dowding, who said several former classmates and teammates stopped by school Thursday, spoke with Greene when he was home for Christmas vacation and had no reason to believe there were any serious problems.

“It doesn’t add up because he was such a competitor--you put a challenge in front of him, and he accepted it,” Dowding said. “But maybe he was keeping things inside. Not one thing causes you to do something like this. Something had to have triggered it. I don’t know what it was.”

Dowding said he knew Greene wasn’t happy with his playing time last season. Greene, a running back in high school, played in only two games, five plays against Rutgers and seven against Vanderbilt. Greene, who also saw some action on special teams, did not play at all during Navy’s last game, a 25-24 loss to Army.

“I think the kid had some problems and perceived some other problems,” the academy’s Bates said. “This might have all gotten to him. . . . but I’m not at liberty to discuss other things. It’s sad.”

Jim Greene, Gil’s father, spent much of Friday on the phone to Annapolis, trying to get details about his son’s death. “It’s a bombshell,” he said. “The only thing I know is Gil’s not here.”

Jim Greene said funeral arrangements are pending. Survivors include Gil’s mother, Josie; two other brothers, Greg, 28, and Jeff, 17, and a sister, Gaylind, 26.

Several Navy chaplains were available to counsel the 4,300 Midshipmen Friday, and there will be a moment of silence in Greene’s memory before today’s Navy-Bucknell basketball game at Annapolis.

Times staff writer Otto Strong contributed to this story.