PUYALLUP, Wash. — Eli Sevener was a star athlete for the Puyallup High School Vikings. And what happened isn’t supposed to happen to young people.
But, COVID 19 has claimed Sevener’s life at 19. The word went out over Twitter from his brother Zach on Wednesday.
“It breaks my heart to inform everyone that Eli has been taken off life support and has passed on to heaven this afternoon. Our family is devastated and in shock by the way everything happened. He was such a fantastic brother, friend, co-worker and son,” Zach Sevener said. "He had so much more to give to this world."
Eli Sevener graduated in 2019, playing football as number 11, baseball as number 21.
His JV baseball coach Dean Pierce described him as a “Goofy, goofy, fun guy.”
Pierce says Eli and his own son ran in the same circles, and it is clear Eli had lots of friends.
Deaths of teenagers and children due to COVID-19 have been rare. According to Washington state, fewer than 1% of the coronavirus-related deaths in this state were people 19-years-old or younger. That age group makes up about 12% of the state's cases.
We don’t know how Sevener contracted the virus, but the coach says if there is anything positive that comes out of this tragic death, more people need to take this disease very, very seriously.