The Catalyst

By Matt Scofield, Reporter

Jake Logue began his normal pre-game warm up along with his team, nothing out of the ordinary. The Sullivan High School Rebels played through two- and -a- half quarters of football against rival West High School near Kingsport, Tennessee without problems. But near the mid-point of the third quarter, Logue collapses unexpectedly. Players and fans on both sides of the field sit stunned as they watch his body crumple to the turf.

900 people showed up to Logue’s funeral the next day, attesting to his importance in the hearts of the Kingsport community.

Parents and friends were shocked when they discovered Logue’s cause of death a few days later: sudden cardiac arrest. Unlike some cardio-related deaths in high school football past, Logue was not unusually overweight, weighing in at a healthy 250 pounds. Also, unlike many heart attack victims, Jake hadn’t had any previous heart trouble.

“He was one of those [guys] you know, no matter what, you’d always see him in the hall and he’d be smiling, all 6-foot-4 of him,” said Shannon Smith, friend and peer of Logue.

Deaths in football do happen occasionally, but they always come as a shock to the sports-loving world, including Logue’s team the Rebels. The Rebels decided to have Jake’s number and name painted at the fifty yard line of their home field out of respect and honor to their former teammate.

The initial cause of Logue’s death may be apparent, but his family and friends will forever ask why Jake was taken from them on that August evening underneath the Friday night lights.