A teenage track athlete suffered a medical emergency outside Maple Grove High School and died, officials said Monday.
Twin Cities high school track athlete collapses outside school, dies
The high school junior, who died unexpectedly last week, was a sprinter for Maple Grove High School.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 3, 2025 at 3:58PM
Fire Department personnel responded about 5 p.m. on Feb. 25 to the service road behind the high school for what Deputy Fire Chief Jeremy Berger said was a CPR call.
Principal Bart Becker identified the student as 16-year-old junior Espoir Missite, a sprinter with the Crimson.
Becker said Missite’s collapse did not happen during any formal practice. He said the first day that track practice can be held is March 10.
Two ambulance crews tended to Missite before the teenager was transported from the scene in an ambulance, Berger said.
“His lively spirit and passion for science, sport and life impacted everyone he encountered, and his absence is profoundly felt by all,” read an online fundraising campaign started on behalf of the family.
Mark Dorn, the family’s pastor at Vertical Life Church in Brooklyn Park, said that Joe Missite shared that his son “was going through a workout and went into cardiac arrest. ... It was very unexpected.”
Dorn said a funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, but he didn’t have any further details.
Maple Grove High School is part of the Osseo School District. It’s spokeswoman, Kay Villella, said the district is “not planning to share anything additionally at this time” about the circumstances surrounding Missite’s death.
Jenkins made history as the city’s first transgender council member and went on to serve as council president. She will finish her term, which runs through the end of the year.
