Agoura High School is still healing from the death of a young football player last week.
The young athlete was struck down by an undiagnosed illness right before what was supposed to be his very first game.
Friday morning, the Athletic Director Clint Cummings sat down with his coach and his Agoura High School Chargers football team to talk about that night's upcoming game.
"The big question was, 'Do we move forward? What's the right thing to do?'" said Cummings.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
The team had been dealt a gut punch, just a day prior.
Offensive guard Carter Stone a 15-year-old freshman who'd been looking forward to his very first game that night had suddenly died.
Cummings just looked at the players and waited.
"Immediately every hand was raised at the exact same time," Cummings said.
That night the Chargers played to honor their fallen teammate.
At both the junior varsity and varsity games against Ventura High School, there was a moment of silence and then with the cooperation of their host school they took an on-field penalty.
They had 10 players instead of the required 11 needed to play. They did it as a tribute to a young man who'd been looking forward to that game all summer long.
"He put in the time," Cummings said. "He was here at every practice, he showed up every day."
But fate had different plans.
Stone had attended classes at Agoura High School just one day last week.
The next day he'd gone in for surgery to correct a shoulder injury. Cummings said there were complications and it was later determined to be a tumor in his heart.
It turns out that he was suffering from an undiagnosed form of Leukemia.
"He was quiet, kind, caring, and humble soul," Cummings said. "He just wanted to play ball."
Agoura High's coaching staff has been deeply touched by the outpouring of support on social media.
A Go-Fund Me account to offset funeral and medical costs to his family.
Cummings is pretty sure Stone himself would've wanted the Chargers to play that night.
A dream come true, even though he couldn't be with them in person.
