High School Football Team's Co-Captains Die Within 48 Hours

For members of the football team at Lynnwood High School, graduation this year isn't a time of celebration but a time of shock, bewilderment, and grief. Both of the Washington state school team's co-captains died within 48 hours of each other over the weekend. Sayon Savorn, a 17-year-old described as ambitious and happy, took his own life on Saturday and was found by his mother that evening. On Monday morning, 17-year Ryan Truong was found dead from what the coroner's office says was natural causes, with no suspicious circumstances. "It's like a double blow," says Lynnwood football head coach Keauntea Bankhead, per the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Losing one, and then find out, and you lost the next one. And those guys were both my captains."

This week students wore yellow to remember the co-captains and decorated two empty parking spots. On Wednesday, they gathered at the football field and released hundreds of balloons. "Everybody is supporting everyone else because nobody knows truly what anyone is going through, but nobody wants it to happen again," student Andrew Carr tells KOMO News. He adds: "It's crazy. Nobody. Nobody saw this coming. It just makes you think, who else is in this kind of pain?” Truong was supposed to graduate this Friday and school officials say they are still trying to think of ways to honor the student at the ceremony. (More high school football stories.)