Friends, Teammates Remember Las Cruces Football Player Beaten, Now On Life-Support

Heartbroken and sad is how Las Cruces students described the mood Tuesday at Onate High School, as a varsity football player and model student clings to life.

OHS Athletic Coordinator, David Day, told ABC-7?s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom Jerry Zamarripa is on life-support and with no brain function.

Two of Zamarripa?s closest friends and football buddies said without a doubt, this has been one of the toughest days they have had at school.

More than anything, they said, they just want their friend they know and love, back.

“One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, just a guy with so much heart,? Mario Garcia, a close friend and teammate, said.

?Jerry would never let us be down, he would always be the one to be like crackin? jokes at practice and keeping our spirits up,” Zach Kimble, another close friend and teammate, said.

Now, Kimble and Garcia, both seniors at OHS, are trying to keep their own spirits up for Zamarripa – their best friend and teammate who suffered a severe head injury in a fight at a party Sunday.

“What kind of person would do this to him – a 17 yr old who loves playing football, a big buy who cracks jokes, always laughing, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,? Garcia said. ?For someone to do this to him is beyond crazy.”

The fight broke out when uninvited guests crashed the underage drinking party in the 8700 block of Tammy Lane, outside of city limits, investigators said.

One Onate student, Michael Sena, was stabbed in his side. Zamarripa suffered the most severe injury, with a blow to the head, investigators said.

Grief counselors spent the day speaking with students as they pray for Zamarripa.

“It’s been very somber, everybody’s sad,” Kimble said.

It is impossible to fathom how this could happen, Garcia said.

??Devastated that someone would do this to him, that someone would hit him and put him in this kind of state to where he’s brain dead,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he felt his heart break as he struggled to find words to describe what it was like when he visited his unresponsive friend in the hospital.

“I couldn’t say anything, he was just laying there?just looking at him, it’s just a lot of pain,? Garcia said. ?There was really no one talking. Everyone was just worried, crying, thinking about Jerry, waiting and waiting?waiting to see if anything would improve.”

It is not clear at this point if Zamarripa and Sena were involved in the fight or just bystanders, investigators said.

“It’s heartbreaking when that happens to anybody this young, but to know that it was Jerry, like he was just such a good guy,” Kimble said. There may be an important lesson learned from this horrific act, Garcia said.

“You may think you’re in a safe environment and with friends just having a good time, but just that there might be that one person or a couple people that are there to make trouble,” Garcia said.

The fight was not gang-related, investigators said.

Authorities are speaking with many witnesses to sort out who the suspects may be.

Zamarripa was expected to graduate from OHS in May. He planned to try out for football at Eastern New Mexico University, and eventually become a physical education teacher, Garcia said.