A high school football team in Georgia played for a championship with heavy hearts Monday after one of their teammates was found murdered the day before the state title game.
The Manchester Police Department found 17-year-old Brandon Smith shot to death in a heavily wooded area behind a home on Sunday. On Monday, the Manchester High Blue Devils honored Brandon by carrying his No. 52 jersey to midfield for the pregame coin toss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The team lost to Bowdon High by a point, 28-27.
High school football player Brandon Smith, left, (GoFundMe), was found murdered the day before his Manchester Blue Devils played for a Georgia state championship. Two teammates honor him by carrying his jersey to the pregame coin toss. (WXIA/YouTube)
Investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are trying to find the person responsible for Brandon’s death. His grandmother, Maxine Smith, who raised him since he was a baby, told local NBC affiliate WXIA she is searching for answers.
“They took my baby from me. My heart is broken,” she said.
She said she knew something was amiss after he didn’t come home Thursday night and never arrived at school Friday morning. She kept calling his cellphone to no avail. Then Brandon’s football coach, Stephen Holmes, called on Sunday to say they had found his body.
“He told me my baby, my baby gone,” she told the news station.
Brandon’s grandfather told local ABC affiliate WTVM that he had always been well-behaved.
“He never gave us no problems — he always been good ever since he was a lil bitty infant until he got his age now … 17 years old,” his grandfather told the TV station. “He never gave us no problem. And I just hate somebody shortened his dreams like that and cut him short because that’s all he talked about was football, football, football.”
Holmes told reporters after the game while he was disappointed with the loss, he was proud of how his team battled the adversity of losing a teammate. They fought throughout the game despite falling a couple of scores behind early.
“They just kept coming and coming and coming,” he said.
Brandon’s family started a GoFundMe to pay for funeral expenses.
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