An ice hockey player in Pennsylvania died Monday afternoon after collapsing on Sunday.
Moments after leaving the ice at the Wissahickon Skating Club in Chestnut Hill, Pa., on Sunday, team captain Nick Bond collapsed and was taken to Einstein Medical Center, according to Philly.com. It was there that surgeons operated to relieve pressure on Bond’s brain.
The Springfield Township (Erdenheim, Pa.) senior died Monday. Coaches and parents told Philly.com that they did not see Bond take any blows to the head and that he did not tell anyone he had been hit, but he died from complications from blunt-impact head trauma, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday. The office ruled his death an accident.
“He was, without question, the epitome of what we want most in our children,” Kevin Hamel, the Wissahickon Skating Club’s president, told Philly.com.
Bond was the youngest of four brothers. His father, Rob, is the club’s hockey coach as well as an assistant varsity baseball coach at Springfield. His mother, Margaret, is a crossing guard for the school district.
Bond also played football and lacrosse. Dennis Primavera, Springfield’s head baseball coach, said everyone at the school loved the teenager.
“The entire community has been hit real hard by this,” Primavera told Philly.com. “Stuff like this, where a great kid dies so young, shouldn’t happen.”
The players in Bond’s hockey club and its sister club in Ontario plan to put stickers on their helmets in honor of Bond. The club planned to bring his teammates together Tuesday night for grief counseling.