Caleb White, a high school basketball star and a three-star recruit in the class of 2024, died Thursday in Alabama.
The 17-year-old rising senior collapsed during a pickup basketball game with teammates at Pinson Valley High School in suburban Birmingham. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
White’s mother, Charlette, said doctors told her the cause was cardiac arrest, although an official cause has yet to be determined.
The 5-foot-9 point guard was the No. 3 ranked player in Alabama and the No. 43 guard in the Class of 2024, according to ESPN.
Charlette White said that basketball talents aside, her son will be remembered for being a “great person.”
“Everybody knows him as a basketball player and he was a great athlete and student, but Caleb was a great person,” White said (via AL.com).
White mentioned that her son, who excelled in his studies, wanted to play basketball all the time.
“He would go downstairs and just dribble the ball and it would be 11 p.m.,” White said. “I was like, ‘Really?'”
“I can’t make sense of it,” White said, of her son’s death.
Jefferson County Schools superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said White’s death has stunned the school and community.
“This young man was a very talented student and athlete,” Gonsoulin said. “He was very much loved and admired by the faculty and staff and his colleagues — the student body there at Pinson Valley.'”
[AL.com]
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.