Grandville co-captain Ryan Fischer passes away before state semifinal game

By Michael Caples –

The Michigan high school hockey community should be full of celebration this weekend, as another group of players will earn the right to call themselves state champions.

The mood has changed, however, after the tragic news this morning that a player won’t have a chance to compete with his teammates.

News broke on Twitter this morning that Grandville High School hockey co-captain Ryan Fischer passed away during the night.

An MLive.com article from Grandville is reporting that he was found unresponsive when his father went in to wake him this morning.

Grandville is slated to play Detroit Catholic Central tonight at 7:30 p.m.; the Michigan High School Athletic Association tweeted that both Fischer’s family and Grandville High School have decided that the game should still go on.

Fischer was in the midst of his third season of varsity hockey with Grandville; he also lettered in baseball and football. He was one of 14 student-athletes from Class A to receive a scholarship from the MHSAA through its Scholar-Athlete Award Program, both for his work on and off the ice. He was carrying a 4.0 grade-point average during his second year of National Honor Society, and was going to be attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to study aerospace engineering.