Kevin Morsching dies of brain injury

By Journal staff | Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

SIOUX FALLS -- A week after suffering a traumatic brain injury, Rapid City’s Kevin Morsching died at a Sioux Falls Hospital early Monday.

The 21-year-old Morsching was on medical life support and was comatose, after incurring a brain injury from a skateboarding accident in Brookings, where he would have been a pitcher on the South Dakota State University baseball team.

“He was one of the hardest-working kids we ever had in the Post 22 baseball program,” said Post 22 coach Dave Ploof. “There are givers and takers in the world, and he gave of himself. People will be a lot better off having known Kevin. His life was way too short, but it was a privilege to have shared a brief part of his life.”

Three former Post 22 teammates -- Blaine Linster, Max Fenske and Mike Robinson -- spent the past two days in Sioux Falls with the Morsching family.

Morsching’s freshman-year roommate at SDSU and his Post 22 teammate of four years, Brian Estes, spent the afternoon at Kevin’s house in Brookings sorting through some of his things with the family.

“It’s just kind of disbelief right now,” Estes said. “I mean I’ve lost people before, but never friends. It’s going to be weird to want to call Kev up and do something, but you can’t.”

Calling Morsching was a regular occurrence for Estes.

“He’s the most fun-loving, energetic guy I ever spent time with,” Estes said. “He gave 110 (percent) to anything and everything he did, whether it was baseball, homework or just planning out a night. That year was absolutely the most fun I ever had living with anybody. We could do anything and have fun with it.” 

Despite the tragic circumstances, Kevin was an organ donor, so his “gift of life” will continue.

“Death is a thing you’re never ready for,” said St. Thomas More football coach Wayne Sullivan. “I may have spent more time with him than his family because of athletics. I became very attached to him. I pray that my three boys grow up to emulate Kevin.”

He underwent surgery to relieve swelling on the brain and the family was hopeful in the beginning. But a CT scan showed massive brain-stem damage that gave little hope of life beyond a respirator and tubes.

“It was just a freak accident,” said Kirby, Kevin’s brother.

Kevin was an all-state linebacker in football and an all-state pitcher in baseball, but those accomplishments took a backseat to his achievements outside the sports world.

“He was just a great guy,” Estes said. “He was absolutely one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He never had anything bad to say about anybody.”