Eisenhower High School Football Player Dies

HOUSTON - Grief counselors were available to students at Aldine ISD'S Eisenhower High School Friday, as they learned news of a classmate's death.

Fifteen-year-old Al Smith Jr. was a sophomore on Eisenhower's junior varsity football team. A school district representative said Smith collapsed during Tuesday's football practice.

He died Thursday.

The representative did not release Smith's name due to his age. The name was released by representatives of the agency conducting the teenager's autopsy.

A cause of death was not available as of Friday evening.

Classmates who claimed to know Smith said he appeared to be a normal, healthy 15-year-old. They did not know of any medical conditions he may have suffered from.

"He used to come play basketball (with my cousins), like every other day," classmate Tralynn Robinson said. "He was real healthy. It's sad we lost another one."

Robinson says Smith is the second classmate she's lost in just a few months. Last May, 17-year-old Brandon Mason, another student at Eisenhower, drowned in a retention pond.

"This don’t make no sense," classmate Antanisha Richardson said. "I don't know. It’s sad."