Second high school football coach dies unexpectedly at same school

The Gainesville High School football program is dealing with another tragedy.

Gainesville assistant coach Quintavis Styles died last Tuesday, according to The Gainesville Sun. He was 31.

Styles is the second Gainesville High coach to die within the past year. Junior varsity coach Rick Rone died April 7, the day before the start of spring practice, according to The Gainesville Sun.

“Coach Styles only joined us three months ago, but I feel incredibly bad for our kids to have to go through this again,” Gainesville High Athletic Director Phillip Knight told The Gainesville Sun. “We are giving them some time off this week before resetting next week.”

Knight told the newspaper that Styles lost consciousness in the school’s administration offices Tuesday morning. He was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital where attempts to resuscitate him failed.

Styles was in his first season with the Gainesville High program. He played college football at Northern Colorado from 2015 to 2019.

Gainesville High is 2-4 (1-1) on the season. The Purple Hurricanes lost three straight games to open the year, falling to Belleview, Buchholz and Suwannee.

Gainesville then bounced back to win two consecutive games against Lecanto and Eastside.

The game Sept. 25 was a struggle, though, as Gainesville lost 54-6 to Vanguard.

The Hurricanes had a bye this past Friday and will face Lake Weir this coming Friday.…Read more by Matt Connolly | mconnolly@pennlive.com