Bremen High School in Midlothian had additional counselors and social workers on hand Thursday following the death Tuesday night of a senior starter on the school’s basketball team who collapsed during a game.
Cameran Wheatley, 17, was remembered as “a great young man who worked hard,” said Bremen Principal Dave Kibelkis.
Bremen was playing in a game at the Chicago Agricultural High School, 3857 W. 111th St., in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood, when he collapsed at about 9:20 p.m.
Paramedics were called and the teen was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead just after 10:30 p.m. A cause of death is pending, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Counselors and social workers from other Bremen High School District 228 schools were at Bremen Wednesday and Thursday and would probably be at the school Friday as well, Kibelkis said.
“This shouldn’t happen to a 17-year-old,” Kibelkis said.
“We are extremely saddened by the loss of our student-athlete,” the principal said in a statement. “He has been a great role model in every sense and he will be missed.”
Kibelkis said plans will be formulated with members of the team and their families “to do something to celebrate Cameran and his life at Bremen High School.”
Wheatley lived in Posen and has a younger brother who attends Bremen.
Students were doing their best to cope with the loss, Kibelkis said.
“We’re trying to heal,” he said. “Our kids are doing a remarkable job of dealing with this, coping with this.”
One student at the school said Thursday the mood was somber.
“It seemed like everybody in school is just really down,” said Evan Winters, a senior.
He said he did not know Wheatley.
“Even if you didn’t know him I think it still affects you,” Winters said.
Another student, Marcus Patterson, said Wheatley’s death was tragic for someone so young.
“He had his whole life ahead of him,” Patterson said.