Reynolds High School's No. 57 Matt Gfeller, centered in black and gold, was seriously injured at the game against Page High School.

EMS and other school staff worked on Matt Gfeller for 40 minutes after he was hit hard during a running play with 10 minutes left in the game.

Gfeller, number 57, suffered a serious brain injury. He was in critical condition at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center until he passed away Sunday morning.

A transfer student from Summit School, Gfeller would have attended the first day of his sophomore year at Reynolds Monday.

But even though he had never taken a class, coaches said he made a lasting impression on the team.

"He was a leader by example. He was a quiet kid," football coach Mike Propst said. "And being a sophomore at a new school, you're not going to be very talkative. You want your actions to be louder that your words."

Propst said that was very true of the Gfeller, who was starting on the team as both a guard and a linebacker.

"He was going to start both ways for us," Propst said. "Just stepping right in and being able to do that for us is a testament to him."

Reynolds school officials are still trying to come to terms with what happened Friday night. They say it was a textbook play and a clean block.

"He just stepped up. He was doing his job," Propst said. "He stepped up in the hole and was blocked by an offensive linemen and that's all we could see on film. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a regular old football play."

"It was a freak accident," Reynolds Principal Art Paschal said. "It was one of those one-in-a-million, once-in-a-lifetime things that happens where the impact was just right to cause the damage that it did."

Sunday afternoon, Paschal spoke about Gfeller's impact on the school itself before he even began to attend.

"His Eagle Scout project was to help us do the eating area by the cafeteria. So he had an impact on Reynolds High School before got to Reynolds High School," Paschal said. "I think that speaks to the type of man he was."

School officials said they will have grief counselors on hand Monday, when the students return for their first day of classes.