CNN
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A beloved Florida high school football player has died after collapsing during a game Friday night, the school board said, bringing the number of recent known deaths of high school athletes to seven.

Chance Gainer, a senior at Port St. Joe High School in Florida, was playing cornerback during an away game at Liberty County High School when he fell to the ground just before halftime, Gulf District Schools Superintendent Jim Norton told CNN on Saturday.

“He’s an exceptional young man who you can make a hero out of,” Norton said. “I would call Chance a friend.”

Less than a month after celebrating his 18th birthday, Gainer was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Norton said, leaving his parents and siblings to face their future without him.

The National Federation of State High School Associations reported last week that six high school student athletes have died in the past month, four of them from heart problems and two from strokes, according to the Associated Press. Gainer’s death brings that to seven.

Among the dead are at least three American college soccer players who have died since the start of the new school year, CNN previously reported.

Alabama teenager Semaj Wilkins died Aug. 13 after suffering a medical emergency during a football practice at New Brockton High School, CNN affiliate WDHN reported. Caden Tellier, 16, suffered a fatal brain injury during his season opener on the same day that 13-year-old Cohen Craddock died after a collision during football practice.

Gainer’s cause of death has not been released. CNN reached out to the coroner’s office in Pensacola, Florida, for more information.

Norton said Gainer was walking back to a defensive huddle after taking a water break when he collapsed and was unconscious. The superintendent said he did not know if Gainer had any medical conditions.

The number of children getting injured on the field has been rising in recent years. Injuries resulting from youth participation in soccer dropped dramatically from 2013 to 2019, leveling off in 2020—coinciding with the COVID-19 lockdowns—and then increasing in 2021, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Gainer scored two touchdowns the night of his death, Norton said, leading the team to victory.

Gainer’s death has shocked the small beachside community of Port St. Joe, Norton said. The high school there has about 500 students and is very close-knit.

“School staff, friends and clergy from the community gathered at Port St. Joe High School following the tragedy to simply be with each other and to show love to the family who joined them as they returned to the city,” Norton said in a statement.

According to Norton, Gainer had recently visited Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he hoped to play football.

“Academically, he had the grades,” Norton said. “He was terrified of the possibility of going to Vanderbilt because of the educational opportunities it would provide him.”

Chance is remembered by his parents, siblings and his high school sweetheart, who is a cheerleader for the high school football team, Norton said.

Gainer was naturally warm and calm, school principal Sissy Godwin said in a statement.

“You may not have heard Chance in the audience, but you could see his smile from across the room,” she said.

CNN’s Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report.