Peabody High Community Mourns Loss Of Student-Athlete Freddy Espinal

PEABODY, MA — The Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and Saugus High School communities on Tuesday this week are mourning the loss of 17-year-old student-athlete Freddy Espinal, who died Sunday.

Wayne Moda, the 17-year-old's wrestling coach with the Peabody/Saugus program and at the Red Rock Wrestling Club, said on the RRWC's social media page that Espinal was a "larger-than-life personality on and off the mat" and was "passionate about his family and wrestling, which he worked incredibly hard at after falling in love with the sport his freshman year."

Espinal reportedly suffered a medical emergency during a club wrestling practice.

Moda has created a GoFundMe page to help Espinal's family deal with the financial impact of the 17-year-old junior's death and urged those considering a donation to be wary of fabricated fundraising pages that are purporting to raise money in the student's memory.

"That is the negative," Moda said. "The positive so far is that as a community we have raised over $33K and growing. The outreach from other clubs, high schools, refs and individuals has been amazing. As I have said a million times, there is no community like the wrestling community."

He added that the outreach in the days following the tragedy is making a real difference for Espinal's family.

"The impact of his passing will be felt at RRWC, Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and at Saugus Middle High School," Moda said. "As devastating as this is to us all, there is no group impacted more than his loving family.'"

"Wrestling aside, I thoroughly enjoyed him as a person, he genuinely made me laugh with his antics and he was committed to his teammates and friends. To me, my wrestlers are an extension of my family. Not my children but close. ... We spent lots of time together wrestling but more importantly, navigating life. I loved him and will miss him dearly."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)