The Damien community is praying for a quick recovery.
Alan Mohika’s teammates hope the quarterback will be able to return to the field, but until then, they say they’ll play for him.
Friday night, Damien’s senior quarterback Alan Mohika was playing an exciting game against Moanalua when tragedy struck.
"At the same time while he was throwing the ball he got hit. He got spun around and the second player hit him on the top of his helmet, so he kind of got jarred there and he landed face down on the ground," says Damien Head Coach Eddie Klaneski.
"Everyone thought he was fine because he was pointing at the crowd," says Donovan Barros, Damien offensive/defensive lineman.
Coach Eddie says he congratulated Mohika for the touchdown play and the quarterback seemed fine.
"He was sitting on the bench and then all of a sudden you just see him sliding off the bench and they put him on the ground," says Paul Galang, Damien offensive/defensive lineman.
Galang says Mohika suffered a concussion.
"He just fell down his family from the crowd came down give him CPR," Barros says.
Not knowing what happened to Mohika, emotions ran high on the faces of his teammates.
"We didn’t want to lose one of our own, like he was one of our main leaders. We didn’t want to lose him because we seen him down everybody was all worried," Galang says.
Donovan’s mother Patricia was at the game and says a priest from Damien led everyone in prayer.
"It was very scary to see any player, whether it’s your son or not, go down and then seriously go down and everybody was just quiet and the prayers started to go out," says Patricia Barros.
Coach Eddie visited Mohika at Queen’s Medical Center and says he’s sedated but conscious. He says Mohika’s parents are coping the best they can.
"It’s tough. The family is holding up strong. I went down there a couple hours ago, 40 to 50 people there, bunch of our kids the players, the families just there to support the family," says Klaneski.
It’s still unknown how long Mohika will be hospitalized.
Doctors not connected to the case, say concussions could have lasting effects.
"If you get a head injury, head trauma, concussion your threshold to getting a future concussion is lower so a hit wouldn’t have to be as hard and you could get another concussion," said Dr. Jim Ireland, EMS director.
"We’re going to probably dedicate the rest of the season for him and do our best to get his heart out to everybody on the team," Klaneski says.
Damien players say they don’t hold any ill will towards the moanalua team for last night’s accident.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
