PHOENIX — The seventh and eighth graders on a Denver football team came to Phoenix looking for a championship but now they're praying for a miracle as their 13-year-old teammate Darryl Blackmon lays in a Phoenix hospital.
Coach Julius Greer said the team celebrated a win on Saturday evening at the hotel pool at a Phoenix Embassy Suites near 24th Street and Thomas Road. That was the last time they would see Blackmon conscious.
Friend Joey Guerrero doesn't know how Blackmon ended up in the deep end of the pool, but he says he knew he had to try to save him.
"Two little girls pointed him out to me," Guerrero said. "That's what like really initiated it for me to jump in and like save him and pull him out for him CPR.”
The 17-year-old is a trained lifeguard and gave Blackmon a fighting chance until paramedics arrived. His father, Justin Sanchez, says that’s the type of man he’s raised him to be.
"This is his calling, you know, he's always been taught from me as his dad, from his coaches to be his brother's keeper," Sanchez said.
Now, these brothers are rooting for their teammate, who is in the fight of his life.
It is unknown how long Blackmon was underwater before being found. He was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition.
A GoFundMe has been set up for Blackmon and his family.
This article was written by our sister-station KNXV in Phoenix, Arizona.
