Tyler Erickson, a senior student at Holmes County High School who excelled both athletically and academically, died suddenly Monday, Sept. 12, at Holmes County on Florida's Panhandle while practicing for an upcoming tournament.
Erickson served as state president of the National Beta Club and was a talented golfer. His school's athletic director, Jeff Lee, said that the teen died doing what he loved.
"Actually what he was doing when the tragedy struck was going out to work on his golf game, and that's the type of guy he was," Lee said.
According to Erickson's parents, he came home after golf practice on Monday, drank some water and decided to go back to the course to practice some more.
However, he did not come home after the sun came down, which concerned his parents. They went to the course to look for him and found him dead on the floorboard of a golf cart on the course's sixth hole.
His father, Holmes County Commissioner Clint Erickson, wrote in a Facebook post that the cause of his son's death had not been confirmed, although the doctors at the hospital said they believed he might have had a heart attack or a blood clot. (Related: Deadly shots: Even healthy teenagers, athletes and doctors are not safe with COVID-19 vaccines.)
The athlete's parents requested an autopsy, and while they did not know why their son was taken from them so soon, Clint said that the family is trusting God in the midst of the tragedy.
"It was God's will. We believe it was God's will for this to happen. It was an unexplainable accident, and it's just hard. It's hard and it’s difficult to move on, but we've got to move on. But just as a family, we feel blessed that we've been able to have him," he said.
Erickson's death came just two days shy of his 18th birthday.
He was also set to appear in a production by his school's drama department on Monday, but they postponed the event in the wake of his death.
Some of his classmates and teachers spoke about him as they remembered his short life.
"He's one of those students that just comes around every now and then. And I really enjoyed working with him and he will be greatly missed," said Rachel Belser, one of his teachers and a Beta Club sponsor.
"He was somebody that always cared about you and would go out of his day to ask you how yours was and try to make it any type of like if you’re having a bad day, he could make it better," his classmate, Delaney Donaldson said.
While it was okay to be upset and mourn his passing, Donaldson said that it would not be something that Erickson would have wanted.
"Today my mom was like Delaney are you going to go to school? And I was like I’m going to, I mean I’m going to try," Donaldson shared. "And I was like I feel like I should because I know he wouldn’t be like wanting you to sit around the house just cry about it all day."
The high school held a bubble release for Erickson on Wednesday, Sept. 14, in honor of his 18th birthday.
Erickson the latest in a string of athlete deaths
Erickson's death is the latest in a string of sudden deaths that have struck young athletes in recent weeks.
A 17-year-old backup center on the football team of Rahway High School in central New Jersey died in his sleep last week.
An 18-year-old lifeguard at San Benedetto del Tronto in Ital, Lorenzo Squillance, died shortly after beginning to "feel ill."
On August 30, Eli Palfreyman, a 20-year-old Canadian junior ice hockey star, died during the intermission of a game. He was named captain of his team in Ontario just days prior.
All these happened in the midst of mass vaccination campaign against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), which has recently shifted its focus to vaccinating children and young adults. COVID-19 vaccines had been linked to an increased risk of developing heart inflammation.
VaccineDeaths.com has more on healthy athletes suddenly dying of "unknown cases."
Watch the video below for more information about athletes collapsing and getting cardiac arrests.
This video is from the SurvivalTV channel on Brighteon.com.
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The world is starting to notice how many young athletes are DYING after taking covid vaccines.
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