Boy, 14, Killed in High School Soccer Game

Susan and Tiva Bussarakons were in the stands when it happened, when their second son, Chad, rushed toward the soccer ball, a fearless high school kid defending a goal. They weren’t looking when their 14-year-old collided head-on with a player from the opposing team, when his chin snapped back and his spine shook.

In an accident that school and youth soccer officials called a “freak” and “unprecedented,” the popular student at Esperanza High School in Anaheim--who idolized his soccer-playing older brother and his elderly grandmother alike--died Monday on the field surrounded by his parents and team members.

The Orange County coroner’s office said Tuesday that Chad died of “cervical spinal trauma from a blunt force impact to the chin”--his brain stem cut off from his spinal cord when the other player’s head slammed against him.

Three parents of other boys on the team, all off-duty paramedics, were at Chad’s side within minutes of the collision, and an ambulance quickly arrived.

But Chad, whose name means “alert and skillful” in Thai, never moved from the spot where he crumpled to the ground.

In the sand-colored stucco house on a Yorba Linda cul-de-sac where the Bussarakons family mourned Tuesday, no one was blaming Chad’s death on the sport he loved. Soccer, family members agreed, had given the boy nothing but delight.

“We didn’t allow him to play football because of the danger and the mentality,” Susan Bussarakons said. “But soccer is a wonderful sport. This was something we did every weekend for the past 10 years; it was just built into our lives.”

Outside, neighborhood teenagers laid flowers on the sidewalk in front of the family’s home. Soccer players and other students at his Anaheim school spoke in soft tones to guidance counselors about the loss of a friend.

And as word of the accident spread among leaders of state youth soccer organizations, a specially trained crisis unit met with team members and their parents Tuesday.

The next two games of Chad’s freshman-sophomore soccer team were canceled.

And school administrators were deciding whether to hold a special assembly or memorial service when the rest of the student body returns for classes Jan. 5.

“He’s just one of the coolest guys ever,” said Morgan Mackay, 14. She said Chad was her first boyfriend when the two were in fifth grade.

From her purse she pulled a small white teddy bear Chad had given her.

“He was just so caring and nice. He was a good guy,” Mackay said. “When I look back on my childhood, I think of Chad. I just can’t think of him as not here.”

Tony Anderson, 52, a parent who was in the stands at the time of the collision, became overwhelmed as he remembered the teenager.

“I stood there on the field, praying he would come back,” he said. “The paramedics were working on him feverishly. We were all praying he would come back. On TV they always come back. But that just didn’t happen last night.”

The type of spinal injury blamed for the death occurs very rarely in soccer, said Dr. Gary Green, a sports medicine expert at the UCLA School of Medicine, and is more likely to occur in football or diving.

“Protective equipment would not protect you from this type of injury,” he said.

Funeral services will be held from 11 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 441 S. Fairmont Blvd. in Anaheim.

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Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this story.