Head wrestling coach Tony Aho’s main concern in the aftermath of Eli Meyer’s death is to be there for the wrestlers who were in the gym when Eli collapsed and died.
Meyer, 14, collapsed after a captain’s practice on Nov. 8. Two other wrestlers, sophomore John Buck and senior captain Ryan Decorsey, performed CPR on Meyer in an unsuccessful attempt to revive him before an ambulance took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The coroner has ruled that he died of natural causes.
Aho said about 20 other wrestlers were present in the gym as the tragedy unfolded.
Aho was at home late in the afternoon on Nov. 8 when Vince Zaffke, one of his former wrestlers, called to say something had gone seriously wrong after a captain’s practice at the high school gym. One of the kids going out for the team had collapsed, and an ambulance had been called.
Aho immediately got in his car and headed for North Branch. On the way, he called Jim Hoard, an assistant coach, and told him to meet him at the school.
“I told him a kid that we don’t even know is down, and that the other kids are going to need us,” Aho recalled.
By the time Aho and Hoard arrived, an ambulance had taken Meyer away. Several of the wrestlers who had been in the gym practicing when Meyer collapsed were still there. “They were in shock, they were crying,” Aho said. He and Hoard tended to them and then drove down to Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center in Wyoming to check on Meyer.
“We were praying in the car on the way down that there would be good news,” Aho said. “But [Eli] was gone when we got there.”
Aho, a longtime health teacher and wrestling coach, called his team together on Wednesday morning to tell them of Eli’s death.
“I wanted to let them hear out of my mouth that he was actually deceased, and that the kids who [administered CPR] had done the best they could. I didn’t want those boys to feel like failures. And I wanted the rest of them to know that we’d be there for them,” Aho said.
“I told them that not very many people ever witness that kind of thing and that they should talk about it,” he said.
Of particular concern to Aho were a couple of kids who had recruited Eli to try wrestling.
“I didn’t want those kids to feel like they were at fault. Wrestling was not the reason he went down,” Aho said.
Wrestling practice does not officially begin until Nov. 21, and Aho said he had not yet met Eli.
“Even though he wasn’t a wrestler yet, the fact that he showed interest in our sport makes him part of the group,” he said.
Aho praised Buck and Decorsey for their actions in trying to save Eli. He had tested Buck on CPR in his health class only hours before Eli collapsed.
“He’s a real good student. If it was me that had gone down, I would have wanted those two kids to help me.”
As for the effects of this tragedy on the wrestling team, Aho said a couple of students came to him and told him their parents had had second thoughts about allowing them to go out for the team.
“I respect that,” he said. “But I think there will be a good number of kids out for the team this year.”
Aho noted that he and the other coaches always monitor students for signs of distress during practices, and nothing will change in that regard. However, he said he plans to show his team how to use the defibrillator and will review CPR with them.
“Not that anything is likely to happen again, but I want the kids to feel prepared and confident,” he said.
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