High school football player dies after collapsing at practice in Nebraska, family says

Drake Geiger’s family won’t necessarily remember him as an avid football player.

“He just loved the camaraderie,” Drake’s dad, Scott Hoffman, told WOWT. “He just wanted to be with his friends. That was the main part of it. He wasn’t really about the game — it was about being a part of the team and being with everybody in the sport.”

Drake’s dad said the 16-year-old had just finished a drill and grabbed a drink at the beginning of practice for Omaha South High School in Nebraska when he collapsed Tuesday afternoon, the news outlet reported.

It was the second day of football practices in the state and Omaha was under a heat advisory.

Hoffman said Drake was taken to a local hospital and was treated for overheating for three hours before he died, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

“He just didn’t pull through,” Hoffman told the newspaper. “They said his body temperature was extremely elevated and they couldn’t get it down.”

With hot summer weather, the risk for heat-related illness increases and “body temperature rises rapidly” when sweating isn’t enough to stay cool, according to the CDC.

Hoffman told KMTV he’ll remember his son as someone who “always just lit everybody up.”

“When we would go to visit family or when the family came to visit, it was always, ‘Where’s Drake? Where’s Drake?’ because he would bring a smile,” he told KMTV.

In a letter to parents obtained by WOWT, Omaha South High School Principal Jodi Pesek said the school was “deeply saddened to share that 11th-grade student Drake Geiger died unexpectedly.”

“We have been in contact with Drake’s family and conveyed our heartfelt sympathy and support,” the letter said.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 2:48 PM with the headline "High school football player dies after collapsing at practice in Nebraska, family says."