Top Alabama high school basketball player dies after medical emergency, officials say

PINSON, Ala. — One of Alabama’s top high school basketball players died after experiencing a medical emergency, authorities said.

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Caleb White, 17, who was a senior at Pinson Valley High School in the Birmingham suburb of Pinson, died after collapsing during a pickup game on Thursday, AL.com reported. The point guard was playing with his teammates when he fell to the floor, according to the news outlet.

According to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, lifesaving procedures were administered at the school until emergency medical services personnel arrived, WBRC-TV reported. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:23 p.m. CDT, according to the television station.

“It was devastating because they were working on him, giving him chest compressions,’’ the teen’s mother, Charlotte White, told AL.com. “Then they called it and that was it. They said it was cardiac arrest.”

The coroner’s office will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death, WBRC reported.

Charlotte White said there was no sign that her son had not been feeling well, according to AL.com.

“I can’t make sense of it,’’ she told the news outlet.

In a Facebook post, Caleb White’s older brother, Cam White, said, “I’ll never understand why it had to be this way, NEVER.”

“You completed God’s mission for you lil bro. I’m hurt. I truly am,” Cam White wrote. “Half of me was just ripped out in an instant.”

Jefferson County Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said in a statement that whether it was the third day of school or the last, “the hurt and the pain is the same,” the television station reported.

“It’s hard to lose any one of our members, whether it’s faculty, staff, or students, but it hits a little differently when it comes to one of our students, especially a senior in his senior year with his whole life ahead of him,” Gonsoulin said.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association released a statement on its website.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Caleb’s family, his classmates and basketball team and extended school family,” AHSAA Executive Director Alvin Briggs in the statement. “He was an outstanding student-athlete who played in the North-South All-Star Basketball Game last month. He was an outstanding student-athlete and role model.”

Caleb White was an honor student at his high school and was passionate about basketball, AL.com reported.

“One thing he always said was, ‘Iron sharpens iron,’ so he wanted to play against the best so he could get better,’’ Charlotte White told the news outlet. “He felt like there was always room for improvement and he wanted to make sure he was playing the best.

“He would go downstairs and just dribble the ball and it would be 11 p.m.,’’ White said. “I was like, ‘Really?’’'

“He just loved the sport,’’ the teen’s aunt, Cheryl Ramsey, told AL.com. “Last year, he got his 1,000th point and that was a big accomplishment.”

“You were on that court doing what you love to do,” Cam White wrote on Facebook.