KETTERING — The Alter High School community is mourning the loss of one of its former players.
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Nick Mangold died Sunday from complications of chronic kidney disease.
The Knights practiced for their first-round playoff game Friday against Bellbrook on the Nick Mangold practice field.
Coach Ed Domsitz said Mangold paid for the turf installation here.
Domsitz said he got the call from Mangold’s mom yesterday that he had died.
Domsitz has led Alter High School football for more than 30 years.
He said Mangold is one of the all-timers to come through his program.
“He’s right at the top of the list. Not just a great football player and a great human being,” Domsitz said.
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After he left Alter, Mangold went on to play at Ohio State University, then spent 11 years in the NFL with the New York Jets.
As News Center 7 reported less than two weeks ago, Mangold announced with a post on social media that he needed a kidney transplant.
He was looking for a donor.
Domsitz wasn’t the only one from the Alter community to share how painful it was to lose Mangold.
Domsitz said Mangold was part of a group that helped turn around the Alter football program with a tone-setting senior year — starting a streak that’s lasted, so far, a quarter of a century.
“We had gone through about three or four tough years, and certainly my first two years back, we had two losing seasons. And he and his classmates were able to win a regional championship in 2001, get to the playoffs, and this is the 25th straight year we’ve been able to make the playoffs,” he said.
Domsitz said they’re having helmet stickers with Mangold’s initials, “NM,” made this week.
Starting Friday night the Knights will have them on their helmets for the rest of the season , however long that goes now that they’re into the playoffs.
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