The Appalachian
October 2, 2020
Univeristy announces seven new COVID-19 clusters Page 5
Climbing community is thriving indoors and out Page 11
Inside the award-winning App State football video team Page 14
App State student dies of COVID-19 complications Jackie Park | Editor-in-Chief Mickey Hutchings | Managing Editor An App State student died from COVID-19 complications Monday night. Sophomore Chad Dorrill was taken off of life support around 8 p.m. after battling the virus for about two weeks. Dorrill’s mother, Susan, said her son was “incredibly tired” for two weeks in a now-private Facebook post by the Piedmont Pacers, a travel basketball team Dorrill played for in Davidson County. “Little did we know it was secretly attacking his body in a way they have never seen before,” she said. “The doctors said that Chad is the rarest 1-10,000,000 case, but if it can happen to a super healthy 19-year-old boy who doesn’t smoke, vape, or do drugs, it can happen to anyone.” Dorrill lived off campus and all of his classes were held online, according to a campus-wide email from Chancellor Sheri Everts sent Tuesday afternoon. When Dorrill began feeling unwell earlier this month, his mother encouraged him to return home to Davidson County, get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine. Once he was cleared to come back to Boone by his doctor, Dorrill began experiencing “additional complications” related to this virus, Everts wrote. After the 19-year-old’s death was announced on social media Monday night, friends, family and others began sharing messages of grief and support for the Dorrill family. Kade Compton’s younger brother played basketball with Dorrill when they were in high school, and she and him were friends for about three years. They both attended Ledford High School. She says Dorrill was “a light.” “I’m a big drama queen, and so I’d cry all the time and he’d just drop anything and be like, ‘What is it?” said Compton, a junior. “It’d be the dumbest stuff and he’d just stop in his tracks and be like, ‘I’m going to help you.’” Compton said Dorrill would send her Snapchat videos of him dancing and talking, and made his own memes. “He was just incredibly funny,” she said.
Continued on page 3 Courtesy of Kade Compton