Nearly 8 years ago, Mary Ellias and her husband were standing on the sidelines of a big game of soccer for their son Hayden, who was playing in western PA. Never did they ever expect something to happen to Hayden while he was playing the sport that he loved.
Ten year-old Hayden was playing goalie for his team. As the opposite team players ran down the field to score, Hayden blocked the shot and threw the ball down field for his teammates. Everyone’s attention shifted from Hayden to the middle of the field where the action was. Though, seconds after everyone’s attention went right back to Hayden after hearing a sudden crash.
When people’s eyes looked down field, they noticed that the goal had completely fallen over and crushed Hayden underneath of it. The goal has hundreds of pounds of metal in the bars that it snapped his neck, leaving a bloody scene for all to see.
Parents were quick to shield Hayden’s mother from seeing this knowing that he may not recover from such a tragic event, but she wanted to be there with her son. She watched him pass away that day.
Soccer was Hayden’s passion, he even wanted to be a professional soccer player when he grew up. Sadly, he won’t be able to pursue his dream. It was after this awful tragedy that his mother decided that something needed to be done about goal posts to prevent further deaths, since Hayden was one of many others who have been killed due to goal posts not being latched to the ground properly.
Goal posts, when sent to schools and fields come with latches that are supposed to keep it firm in the ground, though a lot of people don’t even bother using them, which is what caused the goal to tip over and kill Hayden. Investigators found that a lot of schools and fields don’t use these anchors or latches in western Pa.
Mary Ellias’ goal is to continue to spread awareness about this, and she wants to make sure that something like this never happens again to someone else’s child.
H/T Little Things