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The father of late Saint Mary’s College rugby player Dominic Peterson is speaking out after his son collapsed and died during a training run.
“At this point, we don’t actually know the technical component of his passing, so that’s something we have great interest in because he was such a fit kid,” Robert Peterson told CBS San Francisco in a story published on Monday, September 7. “He was amongst the fittest on a very fit team.”
Robert said his son spent “all summer running every hill in our neighborhood” before moving into his dorm on the campus in Moraga, California, on August 30.
The school revealed via Facebook that Dominic died after suffering a “medical emergency” during a two-mile run on Friday, September 5. He was 19. An official cause of death has not been released.
Though the Peterson family has questions about Dominic’s death, they are working with Saint Mary’s to “make sure he leaves behind a legacy” with the creation of the Dominic Peterson Memorial Fund, which will support the men’s rugby team.
“We want to pay it forward,” Robert said. “He was genuinely a great kid. He didn’t have a bad bone in him.”
Dominic’s father added, “He’d go to war with you, but no malice. No anger. He was a pure dude.”
Saint Mary’s rugby captain Matthew Abbes said he spoke to Dominic shortly before the two-mile run began.
“I was ahead of him, which was strange because usually he’s in front of me,” Abbes told KTVU Fox 2. “I thought it was a little weird, but I crossed the finish line at the end of the path, and then one of my teammates came up to me and said Dom’s passed out back around the pull-up bar, and so I immediately took off [running back] down the path.”
Mario Storti, a former Saint Mary’s rugby captain who was helping with practice, was riding a bike behind the team when he saw Dominic fall.
“He just wanted to keep on going, so [he] asked for help up, and that’s why I helped him and tried to help him out, and then he started losing a bit, and that’s why I was carrying him, and he collapsed the second time,” Storti told KTVU.
Saint Mary’s College president Roger J. Thompson called Dominic’s death “a heartbreaking loss for our entire community.”
“Our deepest sympathies are with his family and loved ones, and with the teammates, coaches, classmates, faculty, and staff whose lives he touched,” Thompson said in a statement. “We hold all of them close in our hearts and prayers as they confront this unimaginable loss.”
