Arizona high school swimming coach Kerry Croswhite died on Tuesday after succumbing to COVID-19. He was 61.
His wife Laurie reported the news on a Caring Bridge site that she has been maintaining for more than 2 weeks to keep friends and family apprised of her husband’s status.
This is a hard one. Kerry lost his battle at 6:01pm this evening. He fought so hard. The song “These Are the Days” by Van Morrison was playing on his Pandora when he passed. Think of him whenever you hear it. He now can see all of your love and tributes and support. We could not have made it this far without all of you and your prayers. We are so broken, but we will be okay. Toast a scotch to Kerry.
Croswhite first started showing symptoms of the disease that has caused a global pandemic on June 22. On July 3, he was reluctantly taken to Banner Desert Hospital, where testing showed that he had double pneumonia and was positive for the coronavirus.
His condition worsened in the hospital, and he was moved to the ICU on July 7. A day later, July 8, he was put on a ventilator. During that process, he went into cardiopulmonary arrest.
Medical staff was able to revive him and complete the ventilation process, and his condition stabilized, though complications including acute renal failure continued.
Late last week, Croswhite’s condition worsened substantially, and he was non-responsive after being taken off sedation medication. Early on Tuesday morning, his wife posted that they had been told that there was nothing more that could be done medically.
A GoFundMe page to help support the medical costs of this has raised over $46,000 as of posting.
Kerry Croswhite was a coach at Chandler High School for 17 years, and is famous in the local community for playing the bagpipes at many of the school’s sporting events, including as ‘walkup music’ before his swimmers’ big races.
He has also been cited at least twice for saving swimmers’ life in pool emergencies (read more here).
The Chandler High School boys placed 11th at the 2019 Arizona Division I (big school) High School State Championship meet, while the Chandler girls tied for 9th. In 2017, the Chandler girls were the state runners-up. The high school is the alma mater of a number of college swimmers, including 2019-2020 USC co-captain Mark Jurek, who still holds 5 individual records at the school.
Here’s an article on the English study for interferon beta inhaler: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8438109/Inhaler-lets-coronavirus-victims-treat-trialled-UK.html
And here’s another from clinical trials.gov: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04385095
Very sad story and loss of a good man. I often wonder as these cases pile up and more people get seriously ill while others have few if any symptoms why we never hear from our government official and public media anything about possible reasons for the differences other than co-morbidities, and old age. Nothing about vitamin D deficiency which in other countries is an admitted risk factor and which relates to many of the complications of Covid-19 like the over reaction of the immune system and resulting cytokine storm that vitamin D helps modulate. Of course, no money to be made in vitamin D so I guess it’s just ignored. New study going on in England with the use… Read more »
Where is HISWIMCOACH. Snarky rebuttals now
He’s just going by Coach today…. the gloating comment seems tight up his ally.
I’m not a big fan of the guy’s rhetoric and stat/fact twisting, but he doesn’t seem like one to switch screen names to gloat
I’m really feeling the love from SwimMom and Sam today.
he is celebrating the bold decision of the Florida school board to put coaches in danger
Florida coaches can make their own decisions surely.
Hi Sam,
Hope you are doing well today. While I can’t say I care for accusations against me such as Florida, a state I don’t even live in, starting programs back up, I’d appreciate it if you actually listened before jumping to conclusions.
I’ve clearly stated, the virus is real, I get it, so to state what you have said clearly means, you just want start a meaningless argument, which is fine. I hope you learn to respect people on social media and comment sections more in the future.
Have a great day!
But actually though
So sad. I didn’t know the man, but he likely impacted hundreds if not thousands of lives in a positive way. How many can say this? My thoughts are with his loved ones.
This is sad news. I can say that I am lucky to have known him.
I remember the time when he played the walkout song for Mark at HS states. It was pretty cool.
this is terrible and we are just at the edge of the cliff, death rate will skyrocket in days, let’s not deny it and minimize it like it’s the flue. Europe followed the simplest protocols and has a few % of the US numbers outside Russia and holds steady
Take a deep breath, Sam. We’ll get through this.
tell that to the people who lost loved ones knowing it was completely preventable
Respect to this man. My cousin passed away while swimming as she had an elliptic seizure. They happen quick and if they happen while swimming, then you are almost guaranteed a goner.
He saved a swimmer who had on which still blows my mind to this day. Great example of what it means to be a caring coach. https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/coaches-quick-action-saves-high-school-swimmer/article_d4ebd6fd-7061-5e5e-a665-b3350c71d946.html
Kerry was a former colleague of mine at Chandler High, who I also subbed for in the classroom when I retired & worked along side for a few years as a public-address announcer for Chandler High basketball. He was the score keeper for our crew.
Kerry was a guy you couldn’t help but like, & admire for his humor, his friendliness, & for how his students, swimmers & softball players loved him. He was a person who left his mark on this earth, & especially here in Chandler AZ.
The swim complex at Chandler HS should be named after him from this point on. He should live on there forever!