A football player who teammates and friends described as “Mr. Liberty himself” died Saturday in the first game of the season for William Jewell College.
MicahJo Barnett, a junior running back who came out of Liberty North High School, died after scoring a touchdown at Greene Stadium on the Jewell campus.
He ran to the bench to celebrate on the sideline.
“He told the doctor he was having trouble breathing,” said Drew Van Horn, William Jewell interim president.
The doctor immediately started CPR while paramedics, who were stationed at the game, arrived.
Barnett was taken to Liberty Hospital where he died, Van Horn said.
The cause of death is unknown. Van Horn said the question of an internal investigation will be decided after the Clay County medical examiner finishes its work.
Officials suspended the game against Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado after Barnett’s medical incident.
“Our hearts are with his family, friends, teammates, coaches, and everyone at William Jewell during this incredibly difficult time,” the college said in a statement.
“Mr. Liberty himself”
Hundreds gathered on the Jewell campus quad Saturday night to remember a young man who many, many people knew.
“He was the embodiment of a good teammate, a good friend and I know a good son,” said Yasir Winston, a junior wide receiver from Lee’s Summit.
Winston looked out over a crowd of teammates, students and folks from the community all holding candles, and simply said, “MicahJo, Mr. Liberty himself.”
Cameron Emmons, a junior running back from Kearney, Missouri, said he and Barnett came to William Jewell together two years ago and were roommates on the road.
“There wasn’t ever one single time that I was together with MicahJo that I saw him do one thing undesirable. He was truly the best of us all,” he told the crowd.
“Micah never had a bad day.”
Barnett “led Liberty North to a state championship as a senior...Earned All-Conference and All-State honors,” reads his bio on the William Jewell website.
While everyone acknowledged his football skills, it was the man they came to praise.
“Every time you talked to him, MicahJo always had the best smile on his face, the best aurora around him and the best energy,” said Du'Vaughn Williams, a defensive end from Chicago.
Williams said Barnett always greeted him by calling him unc or old man.
“To his family, his mom, I just thank you for creating such a beautiful human being, putting him on this Earth and giving me the experience I had with MicahJo,” he said from the steps of the John Gano Memorial Chapel.
After the vigil ended nobody left the quad.
At first, people gathered around the family.
Then the team had a long huddle.
After that, nobody moved. They stood there holding their candles in silence.
It was broken when someone yelled, “Whose got my back?” And the crowd responded, “I’ve got your back!”
“It was a holy moment,” said President Van Horn.
Other deaths
On Wednesday, a high school junior from tiny Rozel, Kansaswas buried after he collapsed on thefirst day of practice.
Rylan Reece, 16, was remembered as an old soul during the service at Valley Community Church in Burdett. “He liked old cars and liked old songs.” said Pastor Ryan Webster.
Rylan was the fifth player to die around football practice in Kansas since 2018.
At Saturday’s game, at1:00 pm, it was 97 degrees in Liberty as a “late summer heat wave” moved in the metro, according to the National Weather Service.
It is unknown whether the heat played a role in Barnett’s death or Reece’s, but Kansas and Missouri have seenseveral football players, mostly lineman, die in the last several years from complications of excessive heat.
Texas, too, lost a player this month. Odin Hensley of Lake Travis High School in Austin suffered cardiac arrest at practice on Aug. 10 and died Aug. 13. He was 17.
