Reseda High Athlete Found Dead at Home

A star football player from Reseda High School was found dead in his bed Friday morning by his mother, only hours after playing in a punishing season opener.

Eric Hoggatt, 18, had been removed from Thursday night’s game after complaining of dizziness and loss of feeling in his legs. But he later said he felt fine and boarded a bus to his South-Central Los Angeles home.

His sudden death devastated his family, who questioned why they had not been notified of his symptoms the night of the game.

“Why didn’t they notify me? I could have waited and taken him to the emergency to check him out,” said Hoggatt’s anguished mother, Verna Hoggatt. “I don’t feel that was right. No one called me. I had to call them. I had to ask them what happened to my son.”

The news shocked the Reseda High School community, where Hoggatt, a senior, was a popular player known to just about everybody.

“E-Whack,” as he was known, was a running back with the Reseda High Regents and had his sights set on a college athletic scholarship. He had played hard Thursday night against Chatsworth High, and was hit often in a 41-0 loss. But by the last quarter, a teammate said, he was ailing.

Team doctor Michael Hollander, an orthopedist, noticed Hoggatt was tired, and removed him from the game. Yet after the game, Hoggatt told his coach and teammates that he was fine. Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said the young man was fatigued from playing both offense and defense.

Hollander could not be reached for comment Friday, but Schaeffer said Hoggatt showed no signs of trauma when he boarded a late bus home.

“He was very happy, very upbeat when he left,” Schaeffer said. “The doctor said he was in good shape.”

Hoggatt got home about 11:30 p.m., stopping briefly to get a house key from his aunt, who lives downstairs in their apartment building. Then he went to bed, knowing he would have to be up early to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus back to school, a journey he had made since the first grade.

But the next morning, he did not respond when his mother tried to wake him.

“I said, ‘Eric get up, it’s time to get up.’ . . . I shook him, I turned him over and he was dead,” Verna Hoggatt said. “I thought someone came in and shot him. I knew he wasn’t sick.”

Desperately, one of his four sisters tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while his twin brother called paramedics. But it was too late--he was pronounced dead at the home.

Family members expressed anger and frustration that they had not been told about the symptoms he had suffered at the game.

A cousin, Gerald Guidry, said bitterly, “A phone call could have saved his life.” Relatives who went to the Reseda campus Friday to collect Hoggatt’s belongings said the family had contacted an attorney.

Coroner investigators said it would be days, possibly weeks, before they complete their tests, including routine screening for drugs or alcohol.

Spokesman Scott Carrier described the 5-foot-8, 160-pound athlete as “a strapping specimen of health,” with no evidence of trauma or injury. One family member said the coroner had mentioned the possibility of a seizure.

At the school Friday, hundreds of students clutched one another in tearful silence. He was a great guy--he was too young to die, they said repeatedly.

“I didn’t want to think it was the same Eric,” said best friend Brandon Lamont, 17, after hearing the somber announcement over the school’s public address system.

On the football field, players knelt in prayer. Other students prayed at a makeshift shrine outside Regent Hall, the auditorium. Nine candles were burning, one marked with the number seven--Hoggatt’s assigned jersey. A bouquet of red-and-white carnations clustered with baby’s breath was signed with the jersey numbers of Hoggatt’s teammates. A balloon imprinted with red hearts carried the message: “Today, tomorrow and forever. I love you.”

Hoggatt was a high-profile person “with an ebullient, high-energy personality,” Assistant Principal Rick Rossini said. He whacked his teammates on the helmet for good luck--thus his nickname--and was constantly happy, never angry.

Students unable to handle their grief Friday were allowed to go home. A crisis team of 20 counselors armed with hundreds of boxes of tissues helped the students cope.

“The students just loved this kid. They’re all real sensitive,” said Doris Barela-Fossen, a home economics teacher who talked, hugged and sat with hundreds of students through the morning.

Coach Schaeffer said he hasn’t seen a tragedy like it in his 18 seasons at the campus. All of the coaches studied the game film and said they saw no evidence of an injury.

During the game, played before 1,500 fans, Hoggatt managed a couple of 40-yard runbacks on kicks. He carried the ball eight times for 44 yards and caught two passes for 20 yards.

In the last quarter, Hoggatt complained to teammate Marcos Reyes, 17, that he couldn’t get his body to obey his will. He was dizzy and his legs were numb.

After the game, Reyes put the pads and equipment away, even though it was Hoggatt’s turn. “I could see he wasn’t feeling good,” Reyes said, though coaches and teammates described the weary player as being in good spirits.

Denise DeAnda, 17, who led cheers for the team through the game, rode the late bus home with Hoggatt.

“He was very sweet and stuff, but he was still messing around, like he always does,” she said, tending candles at a shrine.

Vince Hernandez, who played offensive guard and defensive end for rival Chatsworth, said he and his teammates closely studied game films Friday and said Hoggatt “took a couple of hits, but not big hits.”

Hernandez recalls hearing Hoggatt say near the end of the third quarter that he “was dizzy” and that he couldn’t feel his feet.

“All I can say is that we’re sorry about what happened to him,” Hernandez said.

Various statistics show serious injuries are routine in high school football.

A national safety commission says 400,000 football injuries--the vast majority of them to high school players--were reported last year. Another national group reports 40% of varsity players were injured last year, 8% serious enough to be kept out of action more than 21 days. Nine football players, including four in high school, died.

Despite the numbers, some high schools are not required to have a physician present at games.

The Southern Section mandates that physicians work at all playoff games, but Bill Clark, assistant commissioner, said responsibility during the regular season rests with individual schools.

“It’s their liability,” he said. “Many people ask why don’t we have ambulances at every game? Well, there wouldn’t be any ambulances left on Friday night because we have 250 games.”

Reseda is a member of the City Section, which does not require a physician at each game, even though one was present Thursday.

Family members said Hoggatt had considered transferring to Gardena High, as his twin brother, Mike, did several weeks ago. The brothers thought they might get a better education, the family said. But the coach urged Hoggatt to stay, saying the team needed him, the family said.

Hoggatt was only an average student, but he tackled tough courses in the school’s college-prep curriculum, Principal Robert E. Kladifko said. He was best as an athlete, a member of the track and basketball teams as well as football. He was hoping to get into college on an athletic scholarship next year, friends said.

Hoggatt lived with his family in a small apartment in the 500 block of W. 74th St. Late Friday afternoon, shocked family members huddled around a TV, watching the news.

Hoggatt was the fifth of six children. He and his twin turned 18 on Sept. 4.

In the family’s dining room, along a thin mantle, trophies were lined up, ranging from the championships at nearby Mt. Carmel Recreation Center to the City Section Football Championship.

Next to that trophy, Hoggatt’s 1-month-old black Nike cleats hung from a drawer handle. There was still grass on them.

Teresa Young, a longtime family friend, said two weeks ago family members were looking at the trophies.

“His uncle said, ‘Where’s 1996?’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, they’re coming.’ Just like that, ‘They’re coming.’ ”

Verna Hoggatt said her son wanted to be a detective. He exercised regularly, doing 10 sets of 20 push-ups before going to bed. He was a sharp dresser, preferring silk shirts. And he always made sure he got plenty of rest.

“Even his girls he would discipline, tell them not to call,” his mother said.

Now his mother waits to hear from the coroner.

“I’m going to investigate. I need to know the truth,” she said. “To lose him and not know the truth are two different things. I want to know the truth.”

Staff writers Paige A. Leech and Irene Garcia contributed to this story.

* WHAT WENT WRONG

Doctors ponder the sudden death of a star player. C1

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Legacy of Death for Student Athletes

Eric Hoggatt, the star Reseda High School football player who was found dead early Friday morning, is one of several young Southern California athletes who have died under unusual circumstances in recent years. The following is a partial listing:

* Sept. 4, 1996: During water polo practice, 17-year-old Jaffet “Jeff” Campos from Saddleback High School in Orange County collapses on the pool deck, apparently from a heart attack, and is pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital.

* Oct. 19, 1995: Another water polo player, 14-year-old Gray Lunde of Newport Harbor High School, dies after suffering a heart attack during practice.

* April 14, 1994: Nine-year-old Timothy Richard Herman of La Canada-Flintridge dies after a baseball game in which he was struck in the head by a baseball. Three hours after the game, he complains of pain in his right leg, collapses and is rushed to the hospital. The coroner’s office determines the death is related to his heart--it was enlarged and had tumors--and not directly related to being hit by the ball.

* Aug. 19, 1992: Terrie Cate, an incoming freshman on the UC Irvine women’s soccer team, collapses during a six-mile run on the first day of practice. She dies three days later.

* Aug. 18, 1992: San Fernando High School football player Sergio Echevarria, 17, collapses after a conditioning practice in which he ran sprints for an hour. He dies two days later as a result of heatstroke.

* March 4, 1990: Loyola Marymount University basketball star Hank Gathers collapses during a game and dies less than two hours later. The autopsy lists the cause of death as a heart disorder. At the time, he was being treated with medication to slow a rapid heartbeat.

* Oct. 6, 1989: Kevin Copeland, a 17-year-old All-City wide receiver for Dorsey High School, suffers a heart attack while standing on the sideline during a game and is pronounced dead an hour later. His family had a history of heart disease.

Source: staff reports