VALDOSTA - Tajay Hoppines, a Mill Creek graduate and athlete who played both soccer and ran cross-country, drowned Wednesday in Live Oak, Fla.
Hoppines, 18, left Gwinnett County on Sunday and headed to Valdosta State University, where he had earned a scholarship to run. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he was running with his new cross-county teammates Wednesday afternoon when the group decided to take a swim in the Suwannee River, witnesses told police.
Hoppines went under the water around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sheriff Tony Cameron of Suwannee County, Fla., told the AJC. Divers recovered his body Thursday afternoon in Live Oak, Fla., about 50 miles south of Valdosta.
Cameron said while the waters look like a lazy river, powerful currents catch some swimmers by surprise.
"It is deceiving, and it drops off pretty fast," Cameron said.
