South Carolina prep player dies during ACL surgery

One day after making his college commitment, a South Carolina high school football player died during surgery to repair a torn ACL.

Spartanburg High School senior Nick Dixon, an 18-year-old linebacker and running back, passed away on Friday at Spartanburg Medical Center, the Spartanburg School District confirmed in a Facebook post.

Dixon had earned a scholarship to Division II Wingate University in North Carolina and committed to the school the night before his knee operation, WLTX reported.

“I’m broken-hearted that I’m not going to shake his hand in May and give him that diploma,” district superintendent Dr. Russell Booker told the news station.

Dixon participated in the 2018 Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, the annual high school All-Star championship for players in South and North Carolina.

“He excelled on the turf and off, contributing to the team and to his community,” the district said in a statement. “Anyone who knows Nick describes him as everyone’s best friend. A talented and highly respected student-athlete. As [the district] grieves this unthinkable loss, we ask Nick and his family be remembered in prayer.”

The school held a candlelight vigil in Dixon’s honor on Monday.

“He could go anywhere he wanted to as far as school,” Spartanburg coach Chris Miller said, according to The Spartanburg Herald-Journal. “He was very intelligent. He was a smart young man. And on the field, when Nick wanted to play, he flipped that switch and nobody could stop him. There was proof of that at the Shrine Bowl. He was going toe-to-toe with the big guys until he got his knee hurt, and he even tried to go a couple plays after that.”

Dixon’s final post on Twitter was a video clip on Dec. 30 from the Shrine Bowl, in which a commentator discusses the colleges interested in Dixon while the camera follows him on the field. With it, Dixon posted three words: “Not done yet.”

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said an autopsy will determine a cause of death, the Herald-Journal reported.

–Field Level Media