Urbana City Schools to close Friday for 11-year-old’s funeral

Troy Byrd, 11, collapsed while playing basketball at the Champaign Family YMCA last weekend.

Troy Byrd, 11, collapsed while playing basketball at the Champaign Family YMCA last weekend.

Urbana City Schools announced they will close on Friday so students and staff can attend the funeral of a classmate who passed away over the weekend.

Troy Byrd, 11, collapsed at the Champaign Family YMCA while playing basketball. Emergency crews weren’t able to restart his heart, and he was pronounced dead at Mercy Health Urbana last Saturday evening.

The sixth-grader’s family will receive friends from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the junior high gymnasium at the Urbana Elementary and Junior High School on Friday. A service will follow.

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In a letter to the school community, Urbana City Schools Superintendent Charles Thiel said, “I would like to thank the community for their outpouring of support for Troy’s family and our students. It has been a wonderful tribute to see the number of basketball teams throughout the country and surrounding area showing their compassion by having moments of silence and wearing Troy’s #8.”

It wasn’t clear from a preliminary autopsy Byrd’s specific cause of death.

Urbana Elementary and Junior High is located at 1673 U.S. Route 68.

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