Lincoln County student, 13, dies from football injury

LINCOLNTON, N.C. (AP) — A Lincoln County middle school football player has died from an injury he suffered during a game.

Thirteen-year-old Will McLeod was an eighth grader at North Lincoln Middle School. School district spokeswoman Belinda Branson says Will was hurt last night in a game against West Lincoln Middle School and later died at an area hospital.

Branson said the injury occurred on a “typical football play,” but she did not have any other details. She says emergency personnel rushed McLeod to Carolinas Medical Center in Lincoln
before transferring him to the hospital’s campus in Charlotte.

She says the district has counselors and ministers on hand to help students cope with the death.

Principal Rhonda Hager says Will was an excellent student.

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