Former De La Salle football, track star Semaj Lewis dies at age 19
The De La Salle High School community is mourning the loss of former Cavalier football and track standout Semaj Lewis, who died Thursday, less than two months shy of his 20th birthday.
Lewis, a 2016 graduate of De La Salle, was a starting defensive back and kick returner on the football team. He had three interceptions as a senior for a Cavalier team that finished 9-2.
In track, Lewis won a pair of state championships – the 60-meter dash indoors as a junior and the anchor on the Cavaliers’ winning 4×100-meter relay in his senior season outdoors.
Lewis had offers to play both sports in college, originally committing to Stephen F. Austin in football before deciding to run track at ULM, where he competed last year.
Members of the De La Salle community have been expressing their condolences on social media using the hashtag #RIPSemaj.
#RIPSemaj Tweets
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Lenny Vangilder
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Lenny was involved in college athletics starting in the early 1980s, when he began working Tulane University sporting events while still attending Archbishop Rummel High School. He continued that relationship as a student at Loyola University, where he graduated in 1987. For the next 11 years, Vangilder worked in the sports information offices at Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) and Tulane;…