ATTLEBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - A Massachusetts community is praying and rallying around a high school hockey player who suffered a frightening injury during a game on Tuesday night.
A.J. Quetta, a varsity hockey player at Bishop Feehan in Attleboro, was stretchered off the ice after crashing headfirst into the boards in a game against Pope Francis in Springfield, according to Tim Sullivan, the high school’s president.
“It’s a scary situation to see a young man stretchered off the ice,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “But we also have hope.”
Both teams gathered together at center ice and took a knee in prayer for Quetta following the game.
“Their talent on the ice doesn’t mean nearly as much as what they did after the game last night,” Sullivan said of the moving gesture. “After the final buzzer last night, both teams got together at center ice and prayed together.”
Quetta, a popular senior, is also a member of the school’s lacrosse team.
While the 1,100 students who attend the co-educational Catholic high school are shaken by the incident, they are also hopeful that Quetta will be able to return to the team through the power of prayer and the expertise of the medical community.
“I am the head of a school that’s struggling today,” Sullivan said. “We talk a lot here, thankfully at a school like Feehan, about prayer. We talked a lot more about it here today.”
The school’s upcoming home hockey game has been postponed. It’s not clear when the team will return to the ice.
A GoFundMe has since been set up to help cover Quetta’s medical expenses. He remained hospitalized as of Wednesday night.
The Boston Bruins also released a statement, wishing Quetta well in his recovery.
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