Player’s Autopsy Is Not Conclusive

An autopsy conducted Monday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office was inconclusive in determining the cause of death Friday of a sophomore soccer player at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa High.

Ryan King, a 16-year-old junior varsity player, collapsed at practice and was pronounced dead at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.

King, a straight-A student who played junior varsity water polo as a freshman, collapsed shortly after telling junior varsity Coach Kenny Baker that he wasn’t feeling well after running the first of two warm-up laps around one of the school’s soccer fields.

The running followed 15 to 20 minutes of stretching which came after players ran two laps to start practice.

“He said he was not feeling good, that he felt out of shape,” said Baker, a walk-on coach in his fifth season at Mira Costa.

“I told him, ‘Do whatever you need to do to feel better.”’

Baker said he turned his attention to another player and seconds later King collapsed.

Baker and Jason Oldenburg, the boys’ freshman-sophomore coach, rushed to King, who was face down, and rolled him onto his back.

Baker said King had a pulse, but it was difficult to tell if he was breathing.

Baker said 911 was called within a minute of King’s collapse and that Oldenburg and varsity girls’ Coach Patty Perkinson administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to King until paramedics arrived.

Baker said he couldn’t tell if King ever regained consciousness.

King’s death came four days after Jonathan Diaz, a 17-year-old senior football player at Wilmington Banning High, collapsed at practice and died after arriving at Kaiser Permanente Harbor City Medical Center in full cardiac arrest.

Diaz’s season had been delayed by health concerns over high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat, but King had a clean bill of health, said Gary Smith, the boys’ varsity soccer coach at Mira Costa.

“We have a clearance card on every athlete,” Smith said. “And there was nothing on Ryan’s card that said he shouldn’t be playing soccer.”

Smith first met King in April when he drove several members of the school’s snowboarding club to an outing at Big Bear. King was enrolled in Smith’s sixth-period physical education class this semester.

The class served as a preseason training class for soccer.

“He was a great kid,” Smith said. “He was very friendly and very respectful. He was the kind of kid who parents could be very proud of.”

About 200 people attended a student-organized candlelight vigil for King on Saturday night at the soccer field where he collapsed and a moment of silence was held in his memory at school Monday.

A memorial service will be held at American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday at 7 p.m.