Hundreds mourn high school football player who died after crash

By Kyle B. Hansen

Friday, March 18, 2011 | 10:56 a.m.

About 600 students gathered this morning on the Durango High School football field to honor football player Donovan Smith, who died Thursday.

“It was just kind of a place to come together and be together and deal with the Donovan situation,” said head coach Gary Maki, who said most of the football team stayed on the field after other students returned to class.

Smith died Thursday morning in an ambulance on the way to University Medical Center after he was found unconscious in a car he had been driving, Metro Police said.

A passerby called police after Smith’s car hit a wall near the intersection of Hacienda Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard about 9:25 a.m., police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said.

Officials don’t believe Smith died as a result of the accident since the vehicle had only minor damage and Smith didn’t have any visible injuries, Morgan said. An autopsy was being conducted Friday to determine a cause of death, the Clark County Coroner’s Office said.

Maki said he and most of the students at the school were “numb” after hearing about Smith’s death after school yesterday.

“I think it’s just really hitting home for a lot of us,” he said. “I know myself, on the way to school this morning, felt the tears welling up in the eyes, just thinking about all the good times with Donovan and the relationship we had. We spent three years together and it’s tough.”

The school had counselors available for students on Friday and, in addition to the football field gathering, offered a place in the library for students to get together and talk about their grief.

Smith, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior who was 18 when he died, was a running back and defensive back, scoring six touchdowns in his last session as a Trailblazer. He was also on the school’s track team and was a good student, Maki said.

“He was liked by everybody, very involved with school, doing a great job in both track and football, so when something like this happens it really just shocks everybody,” he said. “It’s not supposed to happen to somebody like Donovan -- young, athletic, healthy, everything going his way, just a great, well-liked young man.”