New Canaan, CT — A private school in Connecticut is mourning the loss of a tenth grader who died after being injured in a hockey game.
Teddy Balkind died Thursday after colliding with another player in a junior varsity hockey game in Greenwich.
Outside of St. Luke's school in New Canaan, Connecticut, the mood was somber Friday as students and parents gathered to mourn the loss of 10th grader Teddy Balkind.
"It's horrible. It's really bad. I feel it's an outreach of sympathy,” said one student.
Police say Balkind died after a Thursday evening JV hockey game between high school students from St. Luke's and Brunswick schools.
As the two private school teams faced off at Brunswick's rink in Greenwich, it's believed Balkind fell to the ice.
Another player, who was near him, was unable to stop, and the two collided.
According to a statement sent to students from Brunswick, Balkind's neck was accidentally cut by a skate.
His father was present as the school's medical staff rushed to help.
After the collision, police say the game was immediately stopped and the young player was rushed to Greenwich Hospital for help, where he was later pronounced dead.
St. Luke's has now released a statement saying in part, "yesterday, we lost a precious young man in a tragic accident. Both St. Luke's school and Brunswick school are in shock as we work to support our students and families. St. Luke's singular focus at this moment is to care for our devastated community."
Meanwhile, Brunswick school added in part "tragedies such as this are hard to process and impossible to understand. We will do all we can in the coming days and weeks to help and support those in our community and in the St. Luke's community."
"Lacerations like that do happen, but, but it is very rare, more rare is when it's anything severe,” says Ted Curtin, a former youth hockey coach.
He says while USA hockey recommends neck guards for players, they are only required for goalies.
Curtin added that while it's unclear whether Balkind was wearing one during the game, there's no guarantee it could have saved him.
"One of the problems with the neck guards, besides them being so cumbersome, is they didn't eliminate the risk of lacerations and sometimes the skate would hit the neck guard and move to another part of the of the neck and still penetrate if if that was what was going to happen, so these aren't flawless."
For now, Curtin says he, along with much of the tristate area hockey community, are sending their condolences and prayers to Balkind's parents and his sister.
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