Freddy Espinal, a junior at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, died Sunday, Sept. 22 due to a medical emergency suffered during a wrestling practice, Principal Brooke Randall stated in an email to the school community.
Espinal attended Welch Elementary School and Higgins Middle School prior to enrolling at PVMHS. He was a member of Red Roots Wrestling Club in North Reading and the Saugus/Peabody wrestling team. He was also a member of the PVMHS football team.
“His passion was really wrestling, and he really excelled at that. He really loved it,” Randall said.
Espinal was “a young man with a big heart (and) truly an infectious smile… That’s how I’ll always picture him,” Randall added. “He touched so many lives, and we’re definitely going to remember him very fondly here.”
Randall emphasized that guidance counselors are available for students to reach out to for support and the school plans to offer more grief counseling as soon as this week.
“In unfortunate times of tragedy like this, is often when we see people come together,” Randall said. “The city of Peabody is an incredible community… and we’re already feeling the love and support here at the school from our community.”
Saugus/Peabody Wrestling Head Coach Wayne Moda created a GoFundMe — https://www.gofundme.com/f/easing-the-burden-for-freddy-espinals-family — to help ease the financial burden added to Espinal’s family.
“I can tell you as his club and high school coach, Freddy was a larger-than-life personality on and off the mat. He was passionate about his family and wrestling which he worked incredibly hard at after falling in love with the sport his freshman year,” Moda stated in a Facebook post on the Saugus/Peabody Wrestling page. “Wrestling aside, I thoroughly enjoyed him as a person, he genuinely made me laugh with his antics and he was committed to his teammates and friends.”
Moda said he met Espinal when he began wrestling his freshman year of high school.
“Over the last two years, he really absolutely matured into a leader in the room,” he said.
Espinal quit the football team and was wrestling up to five times a week since the end of last season, Moda said.
“Man, was he good,” he said. “Every kid he wrestled, he wrestled tough. All the good kids were like, ‘Yeah I can beat this kids, but I don’t like to wrestle him.’”
Moda said he heard from Espinal’s teachers following his death “affirming” what he knew about him — people were fond of him and he was well-liked in the community.
Mayor Ted Bettencourt described Espinal’s death as devastating news for the city. He said Espinal was a “very well-liked, well-respected member of the Peabody community — a very talented young man who made an impact in so many ways in the city.”
He added that the town is going to do everything it can to support the school community during this difficult time period.
“The focus now is supporting his family and supporting students and staff at high school, the Higgins, the Welch, the wrestling community, the football community, and so many other people,” School Committee member Jarrod Hochman said.
