Bottom Line

They remembered Scotty Lang Tuesday as a fun-loving, well-like

student/athlete, who always wore a ready smile.

Yet Fountain Valley High Principal Gary Ernst, football coach Eric

Johnson, and school psychologist Lee Huff could not believe they were

speaking of Lang in the past tense.

The three were on hand at a somber press conference Tuesday morning to

discuss the death of the popular football player.

On Monday afternoon at the midway point of warm-up sprints prior to the

start of practice, Lang, a starting offensive left tackle for the Barons,

took a knee, then fell to the ground. The Fountain Valley training staff

immediately began to work on Lang before nearby paramedics arrived a few

minutes after the 6-foot-6, 280 junior went down.

The 16-year-old was taken by ambulance to Orange Coast Memorial Hospital,

where doctors pronounced Lang dead at 3:45 p.m.

An autopsy Tuesday failed to determine the exact cause of death. Further

tests will be run, but the results from those tests will not be known for

four to 16 weeks.

Funeral services have been set for Saturday at 10 a.m., at the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, located at 8702 Atlanta Ave. in

Huntington Beach.

“It’s hard and it hurts beyond words,” said Johnson, who entered the

press conference wearing an armband around his right bicep in remembrance

of Lang. “Scotty was just a big, playful kid who never meant harm to

anyone...never had any ill will toward anybody. What everybody will

remember about Scotty was that he was always smiling.”

Fountain Valley began preparation on Monday for its first round CIF

Division I playoff game with top-ranked and unbeaten Long Beach Poly,

which will be held Friday (7:30 p.m.) at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.

The game, Johnson said, will go on, as a vote at a noontime team meeting

Tuesday favored playing the game in Lang’s honor.

“We’re still in shock, but we’re coming together as a team to deal with

this tragedy,” Johnson added. “I heard Scotty’s mom (Cindy Lang) wanted

us to play the game, and we will, in his honor.”

In the 1999 Fountain Valley football program, Lang listed “Choir”

as his favorite school subject. Somewhere right now, you can bet, a

smiling Scotty Lang is singing.

And, we will sing his praise.