Family, Friends Mourn Loss Of South High Football Player

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Students on a high school football team are rallying around each other after a sudden loss Thursday.

Sha-kym Adams, 15, apparently drowned Wednesday while cooling off with his teammates at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.

Adams' classmates from South High and family members went back to the beach Thursday afternoon to release balloons and remember the boy who would have been a sophomore this fall.

Friends heard him yelling for help in the water Wednesday.

He had been trying to swim out to a floating dock to join some teammates.

Searchers found his body about an hour later.

Thursday afternoon the beach at Lake Nokomis was filled with people who wanted to pay their respect to Sha-kym Adams, and offer support to his family.

We are still waiting for an official cause of death.

That may shed some light on what suddenly happened to a teenager who was healthy, strong and well-liked.

It's too soon and too sad to even seem real.

"So he was a swimmer. And guest want, you still can drown," Kimberly Adams, Sha-kym's mother, said.

Sha-kym's death comes just three weeks before classes resume at South High.

His classmates and his family are heartbroken.

"And to the football team and mates that are here, and are watching, and that will relay this message, you are not at fault. This is an accident," Kimberly said.

"He was going to be something. He was going to be somebody. He is somebody," Sharrod Adams, Sha-kym's father, said.

Before he drowned, Sha-kym had spent the morning with a few of his teammates, practicing and running.

They had gone swimming to cool off.

Head football coach Lenny Sedlock rushed to the scene to comfort the boys after he learned what happened.

"Because I know we have some guys on the team, they were feeling some guilt. And they still might, and that's OK. But they need to realize it's not their fault," Sedlock said.

Thursday morning that small group of players came together again.

They met at the school gym to lift weights, to grieve and to process what's happened.

"I think it is real important that they're together. We are trying to keep them together. They do. They need some down time. They need some alone time. They also need to have people around them," Sedlock said.

Coach Sedlock told WCCO's Mike Max that the boy's mother met with the football team last night.

And even though she is distraught, she recognizes how painful this is for them, and is trying to help.

A memorial fund has been set up to help Adams' family.

You can make a donation at Adams' GoFundMe page.