A friend lost

Ellen McCarty

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The mood was somber and quiet Wednesday morning at

Fountain Valley High School, with students still coming to grips with the

death of Steven “Scotty” Lang.

Students are “real quiet, subdued,” said Lynn McCall, special education

clerk at the school. “The shock has worn off, and people are just quiet.

Teachers have tried to keep the kids to together to talk about [Scotty’s]

death.”

Scotty, a 16-year-old junior at Fountain Valley High School, collapsed

during football practice Monday afternoon. He was pronounced dead at

Orange Coast Memorial Hospital shortly after.

Authorities said it could be least a month before the cause of death is

determined.

“We won’t be able to determine cause for four to 16 weeks because the

doctor was not able to see anything obvious, like a heart attack or a

stroke, during the autopsy,” Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Esslinger said

Wednesday. “We will conduct a blood test and study the toxicology and

microscopic makeup of his body tissues.”

Scotty’s death stunned the high school. Television news crews and

reporters flocked to the campus Tuesday, as students mourned.

About 300 students broke down in class and attended a support group in

the school’s media center, where they shared tears and memories, and

wrote letters to the Lang family, said Assistant Principal Diana Carey.

By the end of the day, hundreds of messages covered a table at the

center, many of them remembering Scotty’s compassion for his peers.

“Thank you for always being here to make me smile when I was down,” one

student wrote.

Some teammates thanked Scotty for his strength.

“I was always nervous to go in and pass the ball with the fear of getting

hit very hard, but I looked up and ... I saw this great football player

ready to protect me. I trusted you and I knew if I dropped the ball, no

one would even touch me.”

Another student wrote: “The whole school is in a state of mourning for

you, Scotty. You sure riled up a storm.... You don’t understand the

heartache everybody is feeling for you, man. Everybody loves you, Scotty,

including me.”

The notes served as a written testimony to the school’s depth of feeling

for Scotty. His absence cast a somber shadow across campus as students

and staff wrestled with their grief.

“This has touched every part of the campus,” Carey said. “No group was

left out.”

Scotty’s winning smile and broad interests -- sports, theater, choir and

church -- earned him many friends of all ages, she said.

“Scotty had lots of energy, enthusiasm, and was extremely outgoing,” said

Scotty’s head coach, Eric Johnson. “At 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, he was

just a big puppy dog.”

Lee Huff, the school’s crisis intervention counselor, said he knew Scotty

well, and despite his own grief, has helped console Scotty’s teammates.

“There are not as many students coming to the support center,” he said.

“The numbers are down by two-thirds. Now there are plans to address an

appropriate memorial for him at the school.

“We’ve had a number of student deaths over the years, many of them due to

car and motorcycle accidents. It’s not that common, but it always shakes

everyone up.”

Many student attended an early morning memorial for Scotty on Tuesday at

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Atlanta Avenue. Plans

for a campus memorial service for students had not been finalized early

Wednesday afternoon. However, burial ceremonies will be begin at 10 a.m.

Saturday at the church.

School psychologists remained on campus Wednesday, visiting with

students, McCall said. Psychologists who came over from other schools

have gone back to their own campuses and are working with students there.

She said students may have a difficult time dealing with Monday’s

tragedy, but Saturday’s services may allow them to begin healing.

“For many of them, this is the first time someone has been close to a

peer that has passed away,” she said.

Meanwhile, Scotty’s teammates are mustering the strength to play in

Friday’s CIF Division I playoff game against Long Beach Poly. They’ll

enter the field in Long Beach at 7 p.m. and play the game for Scotty,

McCall said.

The team considered dropping out of the game out of respect. But after

Scotty’s family met with the athletes after Tuesday’s memorial, Huff said

the team decided to play.

“The family made it clear that they wanted the team to play the game as

if Scotty were there,” he said. “They said that’s what Scotty would have

wanted.”

Still, the team has been suffering over the loss. And so has Coach Eric

Johnson.

“I don’t have anything to relate this to,” Johnson said. “The worst thing

I’ve ever seen, as a coach, is a knee injury. When Scotty went down, I

went right over to him. I think he was gone then.”

Johnson reflected the mood of his team, saying, “The possibility of not

playing Friday’s game was very much there, but the kids voted to play in

Scotty’s honor, and we’ll do it. I told the kids that we can’t play this

game halfheartedly. We either go all out, one way or the other. This was

a most difficult decision, but Scotty’s parents said he would have wanted

us to play.”

It will be a difficult evening for students and the team, McCall said.

Principal Gary Ernst agreed.

“We have a football staff that doesn’t know why this happened,” he said.

“They’re in the midst of preparing to play a playoff game against the top

team in Southern California. This [death] has changed all that, and

everyone is seeking answers as to why this happened. We have 80 young

men... in a world of hurt right now. [Tuesday] was the first time I saw a

policeman cry.”

Carey was among the 50 football players on the field after Scotty’s

collapse. The team’s trainer administered first aid and CPR, and

paramedics arrived two minutes later, Carey said, but time seemed to

stand still.

A range of emotions swept over the team as they watched the trainer and

paramedics try to revive their friend and teammate.

“Some players were angry. Some were stoic and quiet. Others were crying,”

Carey said.

Hundreds of students mirrored the team’s feelings the next day when they

learned of his death, she said.

Teachers read an announcement during first period Tuesday. Ernst attended

Scotty’s classes with a team of psychologists and sat among the students

as they reacted to the news.

He also attended staff meetings to assess how the campus is coping.

“It has been a hell of a day,” Ernst said Tuesday, as the final hour of

classes let out. “Kids aren’t supposed to die young. I have my own

6-foot, 6-inch son, and this has reminded me to say ‘I love you’ a lot

and spend quality time with him, because there are no guarantees.”

-- Mike Sciacca and Andrew Wainer contributed to this story.

Services for football player scheduled for Saturday

Steven “Scotty” Lang, a 16-year-old junior at Fountain Valley High

School, collapsed during football practice Monday afternoon and, after

paramedics were unable to resuscitate him, was pronounced dead at Orange

Coast Memorial Hospital.

He is survived by his parents, Steve and Cindy, and three sisters,

Marlene, Myrna and Chelsea.

Lang was a member of the Troubadours, a group of student vocalists. They

will sing at the funeral service scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8702 Atlanta Ave.,

Huntington Beach.

The normally healthy 6-foot, 6-inch, 250-pound athlete had been suffering

from a lingering cold, Cindy Lang said, and he told her Monday morning

that he still wasn’t feeling any better. He took Amoxicillin, an

antibiotic that morning.

Monday afternoon, while running laps, Lang collapsed and never recovered.

The cause of death is still pending and won’t be determined for four to

16 weeks, said Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Esslinger.

“The doctor was not able to see anything obvious during the autopsy,”

Esslinger said.