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Mourning loss of a friend and teammate
By Rick Herrin
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Chris Gavora played baseball for Grapevine High School. He died Saturday after being hit in the head by a line drive during practice last week. Friends prayed. Competitors bought a card and a plant. And hundreds of strangers throughout North Texas joined in the hope that somehow a 17-year-old Grapevine High School baseball player injured in a freak accident during batting practice would survive.
But Saturday afternoon, two days after the junior pitcher was hit in the back of the head by a line drive, Chris Gavora was pronounced dead, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office.
Parents and players wept as members of the Grapevine junior varsity team were told of his death after a late-afternoon tournament consolation game at South Grand Prairie.
Friends rushed to his ******* Web page to post comments.
"He died doing what he loved," one wrote. "Very few people can say that. ...... Mourn his death. Celebrate his life. And live your life just like you would if he were still here. That's how he would want it."
Another wrote, "You are now an angel watchin over us all. You will always be remembered."
Crisis counselors were at the school Friday and will continue to be there as long as students and staff need help coping.
"This is a tremendous loss for our entire school. We grieve and hurt with the Gavora family," Grapevine High School Principal Jerry Hollingsworth said. "I'm so proud of our Mustang baseball team and the way they have rallied together and behind Chris, and we want to continue to surround this family with support and love."
Plans for a memorial at Grapevine High are in the preliminary stages. Funeral arrangements were pending.
Gavora was struck by a ball during batting practice Thursday afternoon as the varsity team warmed up before a game. He was conscious briefly, witnesses said, but he became unresponsive as coaches and trainers rushed to tend to him.
He underwent surgery Thursday night at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.
The accident happened while Gavora was in one of the school's four batting cages, pitching to a teammate from behind a net, according to the Grapevine-Colleyville school district.
A teammate in a batting cage behind Gavora hit a line drive that went through an opening in the net, across an open area and through the other batting cage's opening where Gavora was pitching, district officials said.
On Friday, district officials said a second layer of netting should have been installed over the cage openings, which are behind the pitchers in each cage.
Batting cages at the baseball fields at Grapevine and Colleyville Heritage high schools were inspected, along with those at softball fields at Cross Timbers Middle School, officials said. The cages at Colleyville Heritage were reopened, but the others were to remain off-limits until early this week.
Players and coaches were stunned by what many called a freak accident.
The Lake Dallas team, whose game against Grapevine was canceled after the accident, prayed for Gavora before its game Friday night, signed a card and bought a plant for the family, and gave them to Grapevine baseball coach Tim McCune.
"I think what it does more than anything, it shines light on what can happen in baseball," said Derek Matlock, the Lake Dallas baseball coach. "We have balls being hit all over our field when we're practicing. You have to be careful. As a head coach, it makes you nervous.
"You never know what can happen," Matlock said. "You just never know."
Carroll baseball coach Larry Hughes said he checked the nets at his two cages for holes and will require pitchers throwing batting practice to wear helmets. The accident "changes everything on how we look at using our tunnels with our players," he said.
"You just think about it, how many times have kids been in batting tunnels in similar ways and nothing like this happened in years and years," Hughes said. "You get an accident like this, it's hard to explain.
"I just feel terrible for the family. One day, he is about to play the first baseball game of the year, and the next couple of days, he's gone. Those are just things in this world there are no explanation for."
Matlock said the Grapevine facility is in great shape.
"The poles are padded in [McCune's] cages, and balls aren't ricocheting everywhere like they are in most cages. He's just a class act."
Staff writer Noor Elashi contributed to this report.
LINK
By Rick Herrin
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Chris Gavora played baseball for Grapevine High School. He died Saturday after being hit in the head by a line drive during practice last week. Friends prayed. Competitors bought a card and a plant. And hundreds of strangers throughout North Texas joined in the hope that somehow a 17-year-old Grapevine High School baseball player injured in a freak accident during batting practice would survive.
But Saturday afternoon, two days after the junior pitcher was hit in the back of the head by a line drive, Chris Gavora was pronounced dead, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office.
Parents and players wept as members of the Grapevine junior varsity team were told of his death after a late-afternoon tournament consolation game at South Grand Prairie.
Friends rushed to his ******* Web page to post comments.
"He died doing what he loved," one wrote. "Very few people can say that. ...... Mourn his death. Celebrate his life. And live your life just like you would if he were still here. That's how he would want it."
Another wrote, "You are now an angel watchin over us all. You will always be remembered."
Crisis counselors were at the school Friday and will continue to be there as long as students and staff need help coping.
"This is a tremendous loss for our entire school. We grieve and hurt with the Gavora family," Grapevine High School Principal Jerry Hollingsworth said. "I'm so proud of our Mustang baseball team and the way they have rallied together and behind Chris, and we want to continue to surround this family with support and love."
Plans for a memorial at Grapevine High are in the preliminary stages. Funeral arrangements were pending.
Gavora was struck by a ball during batting practice Thursday afternoon as the varsity team warmed up before a game. He was conscious briefly, witnesses said, but he became unresponsive as coaches and trainers rushed to tend to him.
He underwent surgery Thursday night at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.
The accident happened while Gavora was in one of the school's four batting cages, pitching to a teammate from behind a net, according to the Grapevine-Colleyville school district.
A teammate in a batting cage behind Gavora hit a line drive that went through an opening in the net, across an open area and through the other batting cage's opening where Gavora was pitching, district officials said.
On Friday, district officials said a second layer of netting should have been installed over the cage openings, which are behind the pitchers in each cage.
Batting cages at the baseball fields at Grapevine and Colleyville Heritage high schools were inspected, along with those at softball fields at Cross Timbers Middle School, officials said. The cages at Colleyville Heritage were reopened, but the others were to remain off-limits until early this week.
Players and coaches were stunned by what many called a freak accident.
The Lake Dallas team, whose game against Grapevine was canceled after the accident, prayed for Gavora before its game Friday night, signed a card and bought a plant for the family, and gave them to Grapevine baseball coach Tim McCune.
"I think what it does more than anything, it shines light on what can happen in baseball," said Derek Matlock, the Lake Dallas baseball coach. "We have balls being hit all over our field when we're practicing. You have to be careful. As a head coach, it makes you nervous.
"You never know what can happen," Matlock said. "You just never know."
Carroll baseball coach Larry Hughes said he checked the nets at his two cages for holes and will require pitchers throwing batting practice to wear helmets. The accident "changes everything on how we look at using our tunnels with our players," he said.
"You just think about it, how many times have kids been in batting tunnels in similar ways and nothing like this happened in years and years," Hughes said. "You get an accident like this, it's hard to explain.
"I just feel terrible for the family. One day, he is about to play the first baseball game of the year, and the next couple of days, he's gone. Those are just things in this world there are no explanation for."
Matlock said the Grapevine facility is in great shape.
"The poles are padded in [McCune's] cages, and balls aren't ricocheting everywhere like they are in most cages. He's just a class act."
Staff writer Noor Elashi contributed to this report.
LINK
