- Quintavis Styles, a 31-year-old Gainesville High football assistant coach, passed away suddenly after losing consciousness at school on Tuesday.
- Styles coached wide receivers and defensive backs and had joined the Gainesville football program in June, living with head coach Ashour Peera.
- This is the second Gainesville coach to die in less than six months, following assistant coach Rick Rone's death from a heart attack in April.
Tragedy has struck the Gainesville High football program again.
On Tuesday, 31-year-old Quintavis Styles, who served as offensive coordinator for the JV program and was an assistant for the varsity team, passed away unexpectedly. The cause of death is not known.
“Coach Styles lost consciousness in our office before school yesterday,” said Gainesville Athletics Director Phillip Knight. “Our school nurse and EMT’s responded very quickly and he was transported to Shands. Unfortunately, he passed away at the hospital a short time later.”
Styles, who coached wide receivers and defensive backs according to interim coach Ray Smith, moved to the area this past June and lived with first-year head coach Ashour Peera in Alachua.
“Coach Styles had only been with us a few months, but he had made a huge impact on our football program,” Knight said. “Our condolences go out to his family and friends.”
Peera, who was placed on administrative leave prior to Gainesville’s win over rival Eastside, took the news hard.
“Quintavis was like a son to me,” said Peera, who coached Styles at Gateway High School in Aurora, Colorado. “It truly breaks my heart. He was a great role model and I know the players loved having him around. He built meaningful relationships with players, faculty, the community, and my son was also very close with him as well. Our family is mourning his passing, and he will not be forgotten.”
Smith, the team’s defensive coordinator, was at the hospital when Styles passed away.
“Yesterday obviously was not my best day,” Smith said. “And what’s unique about yesterday was that it was my brother’s birthday and my father-in-law’s birthday, which they didn’t get a phone call from me until later in the afternoon. It was rough, man…I was there for the whole time, basically from the beginning, obviously to the end, where I went to the operating room when they worked on him.”
This is the second Gainesville coach to pass away in less than six months. On April 7, assistant coach Rick Rone died from a heart attack at the age of 56.
It has been a roller coaster of a season for the Hurricanes, who have also had to deal with senior kicker Sebastian Jimenez being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Aug. 22.
This story is still developing…