Barons to play on

Eric Johnson shuffled into the Fountain Valley High teacher’s

lounge Tuesday as though in a trance.

He was there to field questions from various members of the press who had

gathered at the school to learn more about the sudden death of Baron

lineman Scotty Lang.

Lang died Tuesday afternoon after dropping to the Fountain Valley

football field during wind sprints at the outset of Tuesday’s practice.

The 16-year-old, a junior, was pronounced dead an hour later at Orange

Coast Memorial Hospital, but an autopsy Tuesday failed to reveal the

cause of death.

Lang’s unexplained death is still a mystery to those in mourning at the

school, but one thing is certain - the Fountain Valley football team will

play on this week.

The Barons, who received a Division I at-large bid Sunday, will travel to

Veterans Stadium Friday (7:30 p.m.) to battle top-ranked and unbeaten

Long Beach Poly.

Johnson said Wednesday that a team meeting held Tuesday resulted in a

vote in favor of playing the first-round game.

“There is so much to deal with but as a team, we had to decide, ‘where do

we go from here?”’ Johnson said. “The possibilities of not playing

Friday’s game were very much there, but if we decided to play for Scotty,

then we’d do it.

“We voted in favor of playing on Friday, and the game will be a memorial

to Scotty. His parents said that he would have wanted it that way, and so

we know the decision is right. I told our guys, though, that we couldn’t

play this game half-heartedly: either we go all out one way, or the

other. This was a most difficult decision to make for these kids.”

Johnson was well poised throughout the press conference, but at times,

you could see that his entire being was enveloped in shock. He and his

staff were trying their best, he said while holding back tears, to pull

things together for his players.

The tears had been falling freely ever since news of Lang.’s death

reached the practice field.

“It’s still a tremendous shock to everybody,” Johnson said. “I don’t

really have anything to relate this to. The worst I’ve seen, as a coach,

is a knee injury. This is something that is completely incomprehensible

right now, but it has happened. We just will need to learn how to cope

with this tremendous loss.”

Johnson was one of the first ones to reach the fallen Lang. In addition,

two of the school’s trainers, including head trainer Shawn Hicks,

couldn’t find a pulse on Lang.

The trainers immediately began CPR, and paramedics from a fire station

located across the street from the school arrived on the scene “about two

minutes after Scotty went down,” said Fountain Valley Principal Gary

Ernst. They continued CPR as well as heart message before an ambulance

arrived a few mintues later and transported Lang to Orange Coast Memorial

Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:45 p.m. - an hour after

practice was scheduled to begin.

“I got to him pretty fast and when I saw him, I thought he was already

gone,” Johnson said. “It all happened so quickly that it’s tough to put a

time frame on the situation. The kids just walked around in shock for the

next hour, and that shock really hasn’t worn off. We’re coming together

as a team to deal with this situation.”

In an ironic twist of fate, Lang’s mother, Cindy, was on campus and,

according to Principal Ernst, saw the paramedics rush to the area of the

football field.

Cindy Lang was at her son’s side as he was transported to the hospital.

“You never know what life’s going to hand you,” said Johnson, who wore an

armband in remembrance of Lang. “This is a new situation for me, so I

guess we’ll have to face it and deal with it no matter how tough it is.

“We’ll be playing out hearts out for Scotty Friday.”