Gibson Co. football player collapses, dies after practice

Will Orr was a junior on the team that was having its third practice of the year in full pads. He collapsed about 5 p.m. Wednesday, a half-hour into practice, and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he died.

‘All the players were on a knee back away as the coaches were working on Will and trying to get him (revived),’ said Mayor Scott Jewell, who was coaching the school’s girls soccer team on the next field.

The cause of death was being investigated, but temperatures across West Tennessee were in the high 90s on Wednesday.

‘The word is they can’t really tell what happened to him without an autopsy,’ Jewell said. ‘They don’t think it was a seizure or anything like that. They just really don’t know. But like I heard one of the football players say, it could have been any of them. You just never know.’

Funeral arrangements were pending.