Georgia football sophomore passes away hours before team’s first scrimmage

Tragedy struck the suburban Atlanta prep sports scene on Friday when a McDonough (Ga.) Ola High football player died after a brief hospitalization just hours before his football team was to take part in a preseason scrimmage.

While there has been no official ruling for sophomore Jason Holland's cause of death, Henry County school officials were quick to rule out any role on the part of the school's football program, claiming that the player's hospitalization began outside of the school day and seemingly was not brought on by any actions that had occurred earlier at the school.

The Holland family supported the school's statement that neither the school nor its football program played any unintentional role in the teen's death, noting that the teen had collapsed at his family's home on Wednesday night and never recovered.

"Whatever led to his hospitalization did not occur at school, during football practice, or immediately thereafter," Henry County School District spokesman J.D. Hardin said in a district statement.

The teen's sudden death led to a raft of mourning messages posted on the school's official Facebook page on Friday night. The student's funeral has been set for Wednesday.

Meanwhile, as school officials scrambled to ensure that grief counselors would be available for students at Ola High on Friday, the school's football scrimmage against neighboring Henry County (Ga.) High was postponed until Friday, Aug. 24 in deference to Holland's sudden passing.

While the Ola football community may have been facing a long season before Friday, the death of Holland only makes its future challenges more daunting, all while putting high school football itself in perspective.

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