04/26/24
April 03, 2010
Notre Dame Recruit Dies in Balcony Fall: Matt James, an acclaimed 17-year-old Ohio football player recruited to play for Notre Dame this fall, died Friday night after falling from a hotel balcony in Florida during spring break. James appeared to have been on the fifth floor of the Days Inn in Panama Beach, Fla., before he fell, the Panama City News Herald reported. Four vacationers have fallen from balconies in the city this year and two of them died.
I could have died under similar circumstances a thousand times over when I was his age, as I imagine many of us could have. It's an unfortunate fact that there's no do-overs in life. Most of us grow up and learn from our mistakes, some pay the ultimate price for them.
posted by tahoemoj at 06:29 PM on April 03, 2010
Witnesses and friends told police the student was "drunk and belligerent"
posted by mjkredliner at 11:38 PM on April 03, 2010
Police still are trying to find out who gave the 17-year-old alcohol, he added.
"It apparently magically appeared," he said. "Nobody wants to tell us where it came" from.
The five or six "chaperones", maybe?
posted by BoKnows at 02:40 AM on April 04, 2010
That'd be my guess. And clearly nobody is jumping at the opportunity to confess to providing alcohol to minors.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 11:07 AM on April 04, 2010
The kid who died was six foot six and 290 pounds. He might've gotten the booze himself.
posted by rcade at 11:13 AM on April 04, 2010
Sad story to say the least.
I'm with tahoemoj, in that I could have been that kid myself. Kids take unnecessary risks, with or without alcohol being involved, and sometimes it ends badly.
As to the source of the alcohol, being 6'6" & 290#'s certainly has its advantages if one is looking to buy alcohol. Via the use of fake ID's and a bit of creativity, I never found it too hard to buy alcohol when I was underage, so I think blaming the chaperones might be a bit premature...though they probably should have done a better job of chaperoning. It was only 6:30 PM.
posted by dviking at 01:16 PM on April 04, 2010
Whether the chaperones bought the alcohol or not, I don't think it's premature to pass blame on them. Maybe not all of it, but certainly a significant portion. Let's not confuse the title of chaperone with the word responsible.
posted by BoKnows at 02:50 PM on April 04, 2010
Bo, I was mainly referring to blaming them for supplying the alcohol, I did state that they should have done a better job of being chaperones.
posted by dviking at 03:16 PM on April 04, 2010
Yep. How many beers would it take a kid that size to get drunk?
posted by rcade at 03:37 PM on April 04, 2010
Depends on how new he was to drinking.
posted by yerfatma at 04:54 PM on April 05, 2010
I live in fear of the day my son decides to go on spring break. Somehow these kids just don't see the danger of horseplay, balconies, and (not always) alcohol. It is sad when your best and brightest are lost like this.
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