‘Extraordinary human’: Stoughton basketball club to add memorial after death of young player

STOUGHTON, Mass. — A Stoughton basketball club is preparing to honor the life and memory of a young player who collapsed suddenly on the court earlier this week.

The Dana Barros Basketball Club will frame and permanently display George Levi Njuguna’s #21 jersey on a wall. The 11-year-old Brockton boy passed away Tuesday night after collapsing earlier in the evening shortly after practice.

“It’s a small-knit community, the basketball world,” said club president Stephanie Creutz. “We will absolutely have his memory in this gym always. He will never be forgotten.”

Players were busy Friday creating #21 pins and badges to be worn on their uniforms. Plans are also being made for a tournament next summer in Njuguna’s honor, Creutz said.

“George was a force to reckon with,” his mother told Boston 25 News outside her sister’s home in Brockton. Rose Mwangi says her son was mature beyond his years, excelled in school, loved his family and country, and was deeply devoted to his faith.

“George loved God intentionally,” she said, recalling how he often put the teachings of his faith into action.

“George would do chores and I would pay him,” Mwangi said. “The money he would get, he would go and buy toys and give to the kids in the streets.”

“He wanted everybody to be okay,” she added. “When you played basketball and fell, his hand was there.”

“He was an extraordinary human being,” she said.

It’s not clear what caused George to collapse after practice on Tuesday. Police performed CPR until paramedics arrived and rushed him to the hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. A routine physical earlier in the year found nothing unusual, Mwangi said.

Answers as to what happened may still be months away. The medical examiner’s report won’t be complete for 12 weeks, Mwangi said. The family plans to lay Njuguna to rest next weekend.

“I’m thankful for the 11 years that I had with him,” Mwangi said. “To know George is to love him. And I hope that all of us can love our families, our country, like he loved.”

Friends who started a GoFundMe to help his family were more than halfway to their goal of $10,000 as of Friday evening.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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