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.
“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."
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.”
