Boy’s passion for sport never hindered by heart problems suffered since childhood

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CARIBOU – A 17-year-old Bucksport high school senior died Saturday shortly after winning a wrestling match at Caribou High School.

Ryan Detour collapsed on the sidelines, and an hourlong effort to resuscitate him failed. The cause of death is still to be determined.

A wrestler since fourth grade, Detour had not been deterred by heart problems that had caused him to have two surgeries and shunts implanted in his chest when he was a child. Annual physicals and his doctor cleared him to wrestle, according to a school official.

“He lived for wrestling. Wrestling was everything,” his mother, Janet Mitchell, said in an interview Sunday in the home where she lives with Detour’s two younger brothers and stepfather, Greg Mitchell.

Janet Mitchell grieved Sunday while surrounded by dozens of friends and family members. As she remembered her son, she wore a wrestling medal her son had recently won and she sat across from some of his teammates who had come to be with her.

“He was one of them,” she said. “They made him feel so very important.”

Mitchell explained that Detour had a learning disability and that his close relationship with teammates was a source of support that helped him focus on his schoolwork.

“Wrestling was his love and as a matter of fact that kept him going through school,” said Tom Sullivan, principal of Bucksport High School.

“He was just one of those kids who just makes your life better,” Sullivan said. “He had a great sense of humor.”

Everyone who spoke about Detour on Sunday mentioned his playful nature and infectious sense of humor.

“He always had a smile on his face,” said Adam Bourgon, a teammate who was at the Mitchell house Sunday.

Detour’s mother said his teammates Sunday were describing stories about her son’s humor that even she hadn’t heard. She remembered one story from when Detour was a freshman and had to wrestle a girl. The coach told him to “pin her quick and let me see your hands at all times.” The story brought a brief smile to the mourners.

Sullivan fought to keep his emotions in check as he sat in his office Sunday, although he laughed heartily when recounting Detour’s humor. The boy never stopped singing when he was in wrestling practice, he said.

The 6-foot, 215-pound senior always forecast victory as he went into any match, no matter his opponent. “His abilities and skills were second to his desire,” Sullivan said.

“His strength was his heart, he had the heart of a lion,” Sullivan said, wincing as he said “heart.”

Detour’s father, Wesley Detour of Bangor, said his son’s “heart problem was never a barrier for him. … It would limit him physically sometimes but he never let it bother him. He just kept plugging away doing the best he could with it.”

The father said his son “was just a happy-go-lucky kid with a great sense of humor and he loved to wrestle. That was really his big passion, was wrestling.”

When Detour fell to the floor Saturday during the meet among John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor, Caribou High and Bucksport, several teammates first thought he was clowning around. But then one of the wrestlers noticed that Detour’s eyes were open and fixed, so he yelled for someone to call 911.

“He never regained consciousness, despite the efforts of a doctor and two nurses at the meet,” said Mark Curtis, Bucksport superintendent of schools.

School officials told the wrestlers that Detour was dead as they began the long bus ride home from Caribou Saturday. School officials contacted every parent of the wrestlers and they all were at the school when the bus arrived.

Sunday, about 70 students and family members were at a support group meeting with counselors in the high school library, Sullivan said.

In a small school of 452 students, “when one thing happens to one it happens to all of us,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to be here for each other.”

Monday “is going to be a really tough day,” Sullivan said.

“A lot of students are in mourning,” Curtis said. “They need to go through that process, and we will help them all we can.”

Joel Pelletier, the high school wrestling coach, said his wrestlers were taking the death “pretty hard.” He said it was the second death his team had faced this year. Last summer, 4-year-old Ian Powell, the son of a pee-wee wrestling coach, died, and the high school team dedicated its season to the boy. Now, the team will carry the memories of two lost friends, he said.

Two Saturday-afternoon basketball games in Bucksport were canceled after word reached the school. A Tuesday-night Christmas concert has been postponed to Dec. 19, and a Wednesday wrestling match with Mount Desert Island and Old Town has been postponed. Curtis said all efforts would be made to maintain the regular schedule for other events.

Lt. Michael Gahagan of the Caribou Police Department said Sunday the body was being kept at Cary Medical Center in Caribou where a state medical examiner is expected to arrive today to help determine the cause of death.

A memorial fund in Detour’s name was being established through the Bucksport branch of Bangor Savings Bank. The money will be used for scholarships, a school official said Sunday.