The Peabody Veterans Memorial High School community is in mourning after a 17-year-old student died after suffering a medical emergency during wrestling practice.
According to the Salem News, junior Freddy Espinal died Sunday. He was a member of the joint Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and Saugus High School wrestling team and the wrestling club RRWC in North Reading. The club canceled its practice Monday night.
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“I can tell you as his club and high school coach, Freddy was a larger-than-life personality on and off the mat,” Espinal's wrestling coach, Wayne Moda, wrote in a Facebook post. “He was passionate about his family and wrestling, which he worked incredibly hard at after falling in love with the sport his freshman year. Wrestling aside, I thoroughly enjoyed him as a person, he genuinely made me laugh with his antics and he was committed to his teammates and friends."
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Espinal also used to play youth football in Peabody and was on the high school football team as a freshman and sophomore.
"Forever a beloved teammate, wonderful friend and a member of the Tanner Football Family,” the Peabody Football Boosters posted in a Facebook message. “Freddy will be missed terribly by all of us and always in our hearts.”
