Thibault's family remembers the 12-year-old who died Thursday after running into a sign at his school.BY TIM POTTERThe Wichita EagleHALSTEAD -
When he played football, Andre Thibault wanted to have the ball in his hands. You can see it in pictures his grieving family placed on their dining room table Friday.
In one picture, from 2004, Andre zips down the field, clutching a football, a determined look in his eyes.
The 12-year-old loved football. He recently mailed off a picture to San Diego Charger LaDainian Tomlinson, hoping the star running back would return it with an autograph.
It was not surprising that Andre was running to catch a pass during a pickup game Thursday afternoon after classes, right in front of Halstead Middle School.
He had his head turned back, trying to keep his eye on the ball, and hit the edge of a thick, wood-plank sign bearing the school name.
As his father understands it, the impact crushed Andre's throat and caused internal bleeding. Despite efforts to save him, Andre was pronounced dead at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus.
"It's hard to believe," his mother, Denice, said Friday in her dining room.
She thought back to when she went to pick up her three sons Thursday, around 4:30 p.m. She saw emergency vehicles outside the school.
"I just knew it was one of my kids."
Andre had been playing with friends and two of his brothers, Nickolas, 14, and Alex, 11. After he struck the sign, he managed to run up to Nickolas. Andre made choking sounds and motioned toward his throat. Then he collapsed.
A coach who had been alerted called 911 and performed CPR on Andre. Denice rode in the ambulance as a Halstead crew rushed her injured son toward a Wichita hospital, 36 miles away.
But on K-96, a mile east of Maize, the ambulance's right front tire blew out. The crew immediately called Sedgwick County crews for assistance and kept treating the boy until help arrived, said J.R. Hatfield, Halstead's city administrator.
A Sedgwick County EMS crew took the boy the rest of the way, Hatfield said.
"There was some delay, but it wasn't very much," he said.
Andre's father, Alan, said: "The way we understand it is the flat... didn't make a difference." The injury was that severe.
He said emergency crews did the best they could and stressed that the family doesn't fault anyone, including the school.
The Thibaults are donating parts of Andre's body for transplant so that others might live. "All the kids decided that," Alan said.
Friday afternoon, the family welcomed reporters into their home so their six other children could tell the world about their brother. The Thibaults wanted to focus on their son's life, not how he died.
So many friends came to their house that the long, wide driveway clogged with cars. Inside, the family set up extra chairs. Friends brought homemade cinnamon rolls, pies and casseroles. All afternoon, people streamed in and hugged Alan and Denice.
At times, the couple found themselves consoling friends, trying to make sense of it.
"Everybody took such good care of him," Denice told one visitor.
"God wanted him.... It was his time.... They said the town was praying for him last night."
She kept talking, but her eyes looked exhausted.
Halstead-Bentley school officials dispatched nine specialists in grief counseling to the district's three schools. Some students stayed home Friday, said superintendent Tom Bishard.
He said he expected a "very focused evaluation of every aspect" of how the accident occurred.
Because it was an unorganized game, after school, apparently no adult was supervising, he said.
From time to time Friday afternoon, small groups of people -- adults and children -- walked up to the sign that Andre ran into. They left balloons and a poster: a makeshift memorial. They stood with their arms around one another.
At the Thibault home, Andre's father showed all the sports pictures and drawings his son had kept under his bed. In his closet, Andre had stored football cards and copies of Sports Illustrated.
He was an A student.
Nick, Andre's 14-year-old brother, seemed shaken but said he wanted to talk about his brother, "who loved to play."
"He just liked to have the ball."
Andre weighed 96 pounds, and he wore braces. He was proud of his recent victories on the wrestling mat.
Nick called his little brother Andre the Giant.
"He was small for his age," Nick said, "but he had heart."
