New York-area high-school football player dies during training

[August 11, 2017]    (Reuters) - A high-school football player on New York's Long Island was killed on Thursday when he was struck in the head by a log his teammates were carrying on the field during a conditioning drill, police said.

Joshua Mileto, 16, suffered the fatal injury at Sachem East High School in Farmingville, a community 50 miles (80 km) east of Manhattan, and was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, Suffolk County Police said in a statement.

Police detectives were investigating the death, which occurred during an off-season football workout.

Witnesses reported several football players were running onto the field while holding a large log, which resembled a telephone pole, over their heads, according to New York television station WCBS-TV. Two of the players fell, and the log struck Mileto in the head. It was not clear whether Mileto or the other players were wearing football helmets at the time.

"The district is devastated by this horrific accident, and words cannot express the grief we feel as a school community," Sachem Central School District Superintendent Kenneth Graham said in a statement.

All activities at the district's campuses were canceled following the death, he added.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Gorman and Leslie Adler)

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