Prep Running Back Dies

Reseda High football player Eric Hoggatt was found dead in his bed Friday morning by his mother, only hours after he had played in the Regents’ season opener.

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.

“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. “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 community, where Hoggatt, a senior running back, was a popular player known to almost everyone.

Hoggatt had played hard Thursday night against Chatsworth, 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 Coach Joel Schaeffer and teammates that he was fine.

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 retrieve a house key from his aunt, who lives downstairs in their apartment building.

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.”

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.

A cousin, Gerald Guidry, said bitterly, “A phone call could have saved his life.”

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

School 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 mentioned the possibility of a seizure.

At the school Friday, hundreds of students clutched one another in tearful silence.

“I didn’t want to think it was the same Eric,” Brandon Lamont, 17, said after hearing the announcement.

During the game, Hoggatt had a couple of 40-yard kick returns. 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 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, although coaches and teammates described the weary player as in good spirits.

Chatsworth’s Vince Hernandez said he and his teammates closely studied game film on Friday and that Hoggatt “took a couple of hits, but not big hits.”

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.”

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Staff writers Dana Haddad, Ralph Frammolino and Paige A. Leech contributed to this story.