{"id":14742,"date":"2024-11-21T20:04:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=14742"},"modified":"2024-11-21T20:04:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:04:32","slug":"freshman-basketball-player-at-university-of-mobile-dies-after-collapsing-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=14742","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Basketball Player at University of Mobile Dies After Collapsing on Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cDespite the quick and heroic efforts of students and medical professionals, Kaiden never recovered,\u201d the university’s president said<\/p>\n

A college basketball player at the University of Mobile in Alabama died unexpectedly following a collapse on campus.<\/p>\n

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Freshman Kaiden Francis died on Tuesday, Nov. 19, \u201cafter doing what he loved to do, working on his craft in the gym,\u201d the university\u2019s head basketball coach, Darnell Archey, said in a\u00a0post on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0honoring Francis\u2019 memory.<\/p>\n

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In a letter to students and faculty<\/a>\u00a0regarding the tragic incident, Charles Smith, University of Mobile president, said that \u201cdespite the quick and heroic efforts of students and medical professionals, Kaiden never recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kaiden<\/div>\n<\/div>
Kaiden Francis.<\/span>UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter\u00a0<\/a>to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cMy family and I had the privilege of watching Kaiden play just last week. He was profoundly gifted and clearly loved by his teammates. As you can imagine, Kaiden\u2019s family, coaches, and teammates are heartbroken and need our prayers,\u201d Smith\u2019s message continued.<\/p>\n

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In a statement to PEOPLE, Associate Vice President for University\u00a0Communications Kathy Dean said, “Like all of our athletes, Kaiden recently passed a battery of health screenings, including heart and lung evaluations. None of these tests indicated health concerns. Kaiden was found unresponsive shortly after he finished his weekly skills workout with UM coaching staff and trainers. Out of respect for the family, we have no plans to comment further at this time.”<\/p>\n

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The Fort Lauderdale resident was described lovingly by Archey, who said, \u201cKaiden was just scratching the surface on the court but his smile and positive energy could be felt from day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be truly missed and I can\u2019t thank him enough for being a part of my life over the past few months.\u00a0 My heart aches for his family, friends and teammates,\u201d Archey added.<\/p>\n

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Classes were canceled on Wednesday, Nov. 20, \u201cto give our community time to mourn and pray,\u201d according to the university, but a \u201ccampus-wide\u201d vigil was still held on-site Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

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    \u201cDespite the quick and heroic efforts of students and medical professionals, Kaiden never recovered,\u201d the university’s president said A college basketball player at the University of Mobile in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14744,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions\/14744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}