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Loudoun high school football team honors former player who died last year

Riverside High School played its first football game at the newly named Fitz Alexander Campbell Thomas Stadium Friday since the passing of 16-year-old Fitz Thomas.

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — A Loudoun County teenager who died last summer was honored by his old football team Friday night.

Fitz Thomas, 16, drowned June 4 while swimming near the confluence of Goose Creek and the Potomac River in Loudoun County.

Thomas was popular among his classmates, and also played football for the Riverside High School Rams.

In 2020, following Thomas’ death, his friends petitioned Loudoun County Public Schools to rename Riverside’s stadium and field in Thomas’ honor.

“Fitz was my best friend,” Riverside student Christian Yohannes said. “It’s my responsibility to know what he would’ve wanted so I took it upon myself and the rest of the community to really bring about this change because we knew what it would’ve meant to Fitz.”

On Friday, Thomas’ family and friends got to watch the Rams play for the first time ever on the newly named Fitz Alexander Campbell Thomas Stadium at FACT Field.

Fitz’s mother Pastor Michelle Thomas said she was happy to see Loudoun County honor her son.

“To have this happen and have nobody put up resistance, everybody came together, I think that’s fantastic,” she said.

Credit: WUSA
Fitz Thomas was a football player for Riverside High School.

Loudoun County schools officials say Riverside's stadium will soon have additional new signs to reflect its name change.

Riverside's next game at Fitz Alexander Campbell Thomas Stadium takes place March 13 against Woodgrove High School.

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