Colleges

Ex-USF safety dies in game

By GREG AUMAN
Published February 27, 2007

Former USF football player Javan Camon, playing for a professional indoor team in Daytona Beach, died after making a head-to-head tackle during a game Monday night in Daytona Beach.

Camon, 25, a co-captain and leading tackler as a senior for USF in 2004, was playing his first game this season for the Daytona Beach Thunder of the American Indoor Football League. Police would not release the name, pending notification of family, but his identity was confirmed as Camon.

A defensive player was involved in a "severe, head-on ... one-on-one hit" on a player for the Columbus (Ga.) Lions, Greg Grayson of the Daytona Beach Police Department said.

The player was attended to by emergency medical staff and received CPR before being taken to Halifax Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about 9 p.m., Grayson said.

Camon was a starter for only one season at USF but emerged as a team leader and a hard-hitting safety, starting all 11 games as a senior and finishing with a team-high 101 tackles.

"This game doesn't last forever, so we're going to go out and play our hearts out," he said in 2004 before his senior season.

In 2004, Camon was tackling Tennessee Tech receiver Drew Hixon when USF teammate Mike Jenkins collided with Hixon, and the hit caused a brain injury that left Hixon in a drug-induced coma for two months. Hixon has made a remarkable recovery, but the aftermath had an impact on Camon, who said last year he didn't want to be as aggressive.

[Last modified February 27, 2007, 09:53:10]