The unexpected death of a promising young athlete has left the Carroll ISD community in mourning.
A public memorial service has been scheduled at White’s Chapel Methodist Church in Southlake on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. to honor the life of Julio Oliveira.
Julio, a 13-year-old seventh grader at Carroll Middle School, collapsed at school last Thursday. He was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center, where doctors discovered he had a brain aneurysm.
Brain aneurysms can strike anyone but are most common among adult women between the ages of 30 and 60, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Brain aneurysms occur every 18 minutes in the United States and cause nearly 500,000 deaths worldwide each year.
“Things happened so suddenly on Thursday. Just out of the blue,” said Julio’s soccer coach, Declan O’Shea, according to WFAA. “We got a text from his mom through a carpooling thread saying the doctors have done all they can do.”
Julio played with the Solar Soccer Club for four years after his family moved to the area from Brazil. Despite not speaking English at first, he excelled on the field and began to show promise as a midfielder.
“He was very compassionate, intelligent, ultra-competitive,” O’Shea added. “It’s one of those things where he wanted to win, and he wanted to give everything he got all the time.”
O’Shea and Sreedhar Ellisetty, team manager of the Solar Soccer Club, arranged a GoFundMe for Julio’s family to help them cover the unforeseen medical and funeral expenses.
It had raised nearly $54,000 as of August 29.
The Solar Soccer Club also plans to honor Julio and support his family by wearing burgundy shirts and sweatbands — colors associated with brain aneurysm awareness.
“They’re just shocked. They’re sad. They’re heartbroken for the family,” O’Shea said of the players. “It was like a family. That team alone was a huge family.”
A message from Carroll ISD Superintendent Lane Ledbetter acknowledged the devastating impact of Julio’s death.
“It is essential that we support one another during this time of grief. We have lost a valuable member of our Dragon community, and we will undoubtedly feel his absence each day,” the statement reads.
