Highschool soccer participant dies by suicide after bounce off San Pedro cliff

A well-known California highschool soccer coach delivered an emotional message after a star participant leapt from a cliff at a preferred seaside spot for suicides in Los Angeles.

Alexander Hamilton Excessive College soccer coach Elijah Asante dropped his highly effective statements on social media Saturday following the July 21 suicide of Yankees large receiver Khadyn Perkins in coastal San Pedro.

Perkins, 19, additionally performed cornerback on the varsity Hamilton group that competes within the CIF Los Angeles Metropolis Part Western League.

Asante is a well known highschool coach who got here out of retirement in 2024 to revive Hamilton’s longstanding soccer program.

Perkins wore the quantity 16 jersey and graduated from Hamilton in 2025. His loss of life was dominated a suicide by the workplace of the Los Angeles Medical Examiner, with traumatic accidents listed as his reason behind loss of life, with possible drowning as a contributing issue.

The Los Angeles hearth division despatched out a bulletin at 6:24 p.m. final Tuesday about hearth corporations responding to the realm of the Sunken Metropolis in San Pedro for a person within the water.

Firemen discovered Perkins already lifeless on the backside of a cliff above the ocean. The handle of the younger participant’s loss of life was listed as 500 West Paseo Del Mar.

After the loss of life of Perkins, Asante delivered an inspirational message to his group, telling his gamers that they’re “greater than soccer” and that they need to ask for assist in instances of battle.

“When life will get heavy, don’t carry it alone. Discuss to your mother and father, discuss to your coaches, discuss to your lecturers, discuss to your teammates. There’s power and braveness in asking for assist,” mentioned Asante.

The coach continued with phrases of knowledge for any younger particular person scuffling with life.

 “Your future is bigger than your present ache. You gained’t even keep in mind a few of the stuff you battle with now sooner or later,” mentioned Asante. “There are individuals who love you, imagine in you, and can struggle for you, even on the times if you don’t really feel like preventing for your self.”

Hamilton’s soccer group is a household, suggested the coach, and gamers have to be careful for each other.

Sunken Metropolis is a historic, closed-off coastal landslide space on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The oceanside cliffs are referred to as a graffiti spot and hangout for native teenagers and have the cracked foundations of fallen buildings and a tangle of damaged streetcar tracks.

Sunken Metropolis can also be a preferred spot for suicides the place many individuals have leapt to their deaths. So many individuals have died there that former Los Angeles CityCouncilman Joe Buscaino pushed for the set up of anti-suicide signage in 2015.

Hamilton is a famed Fortress Hills highschool based in 1931. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass graduated from Hamilton in 1971.

The varsity boasts spectacular alumni together with Nipsey Hussle, Shia LaBeouf, and 1990 New York Giants Tremendous Bowl champion large receiver Stephen Baker.

Hamilton coach Asante is a working actor and the previous head soccer coach of L.A. Jordan and Carson excessive colleges. He’s recognized for sporting a swimsuit and tie on the sidelines and coining the phrase, “I completely don’t recruit. I entice.”

Asante mentioned Hamilton’s tight-knit group was hurting after the loss of life of the favored participant Perkins.

“No phrases can totally clarify the ache we really feel or reply each query in our hearts,” he mentioned.

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