A rising soccer star was identified as the 16-year-old girl tragically killed in a freak sledding accident during a rare winter storm in Texas over the weekend.
Elizabeth Angle and one of her teammates hitched a sled to the back of a 16-year-old boy’s Jeep for a high-speed go-around on Sunday afternoon just after Winter Storm Fern passed over Texas, according to relatives and the Frisco Police Department.
During a sharp turn, the sled slammed against a curb and careened into a tree, the department said.
Angle and her friend were rushed to the hospital. Angle “succumbed to her injuries” at the hospital, and her teammate — whose identity hasn’t been released — was listed in critical condition, police said.
The teen was a sophomore at Wakeland High School, where she played on the junior varsity soccer team in the fall. In the off-season, she competed for FC Dallas 2009G club team.
Her mother told Fox 4 that Angle only recently acquired her driver’s license and was eager to spend a snowy weekend with her closest friends.
“We will never be the same,” she said.
On social media, the grieving mother described Angle as “a bright light, a fun spirit, a brave soul.”
Luis Ramos, her club soccer coach, dedicated a heart-wrenching poem to his team’s “calm voice.”
“She knew what it meant to stand her ground. To take the hit. To protect what mattered,” Ramos wrote on Facebook.
He briefly touched on a broken ankle Angle suffered during one season with his team, which he said made her even more resilient as “healing tested her patience.”
“She came back stronger, not just in body, but in heart. And now…though the field feels different, though the back line feels empty, we believe this: God called her home not in defeat, but in victory. Still guarding. Still strong. Now standing watch from a higher ground,” he wrote.
Wakeland High School said it will hold a moment of silence to honor Angle during second period when school resumes. It will also provide mental health support to grieving classmates and teachers throughout the day.
The sledding incident remains under investigation, and no arrests have been announced.
Angle and her friend were two of 35 youths who were hospitalized for sledding-related injuries at Dallas-area hospitals over the weekend, according to a news release from the Cook Children’s Health Care System.
The youngest patient was just 2 years old. The injuries tallied so far range from broken bones to internal lacerations, the release said.
“This is not snow that we have here in Texas; this is ice. When kids hit their head on ice, it can cause catastrophic injuries,” warned Taylor Louden, M.D., medical director of emergency services at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth.
At least 28 people were killed nationwide during Winter Storm Fern. Most of the deaths are still under investigation, but some have been linked to hypothermia.