A 17-year-old quarterback for Alma Center Lincoln High School has died days after suffering an injury during his team's season-opening football game, prompting the western Wisconsin school district to bring in grief counselors as students return this week. Adam Massman, a senior who played quarterback and defensive back for the Hornets, received medical care from emergency personnel on the field before he was taken to the hospital.
The injury happened Thursday during Alma Center Lincoln's season opener against Turtle Lake High School in Turtle Lake, and game officials halted play late in the contest after emergency medical personnel began treating Massman on the field, according to Bound Wisconsin. The Lincoln school district learned Saturday that Massman had died from the injury, according to WSMV. The school district and medical examiners have not publicly detailed the exact nature of the injury.
A Family Woven Into Lincoln Schools
Massman's family has extensive ties to Lincoln schools, with relatives who work for the district or serve on the school board, per the WSMV report. His mother works as an elementary school counselor, and his sibling attends the junior high school. Superintendent Drew Semingson, who oversees the Alma Center-Humbird-Merrillan School District, said in a statement that “this loss touches our Lincoln family in many ways.”
The consolidated district serves three small rural communities in Jackson County roughly 45 miles southeast of Eau Claire, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Semingson announced that grief counselors and support services would be available at Lincoln Jr./Sr. High School starting at noon on Monday for students, staff, and parents returning to school, per WEAU's report cited by BringMeTheNews.
Remembered As A Fierce Competitor
Friend Megan Steussel said Massman will be remembered as “a friend, a fierce competitor and someone who followed his convictions and his passions,” and told WSMV that the loss will hurt for a long time. Steussel also said Massman's family is deeply connected to Alma Center and Jackson County, and urged families to tell their children and their children's friends that they love and appreciate them.
Massman was a four-sport athlete who also competed in basketball, baseball, and track and field, running as a sprinter on Alma Center Lincoln's 4x100-meter relay team during the spring 2026 season. He was named to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association's 2025 Boys Basketball Academic All-State list. Teammates created a tribute at Lincoln High School that includes his school parking spot painted in his honor, tire tracks made with his truck, images representing the Massman family's cattle business, and the letters “LLA,” meaning “Long Live Adam.”
Standout Season Under Center
As Alma Center Lincoln's starting quarterback in 2025, Massman threw for 858 yards and 10 passing touchdowns while rushing for 280 yards and three more scores, accumulating 1,138 total yards on the season according to MaxPreps statistics. That production helped the Hornets post a 4-4 regular-season record and earn their first WIAA 8-player football playoff berth since 2019, per Bound Wisconsin's preseason preview, which projected him as a key returning starter for 2026.
Alma Center Lincoln competes in Wisconsin's 8-player football division, a WIAA format built for smaller rural school districts with lower enrollments, as CBS 58 notes. The Turtle Lake School District had hosted Thursday's contest as its season kickoff, and community groups and school leaders there joined neighboring districts in expressing condolences after the game was cut short.
Beyond The Field: FFA And Cattle Showing
Outside of athletics, Massman participated in multiple sports, clubs and activities, including as an active livestock showman and member of the Lincoln ACHM Future Farmers of America chapter. He exhibited cattle at the Jackson County Fair alongside peers from neighboring agricultural programs, and FFA chapters across the county issued tributes following his death, according to Melrose-Mindoro FFA.
The National Federation of State High School Associations requires member schools to maintain emergency action plans and access to trained medical responders at contact athletic contests, standards that call for first responders on site to deliver immediate emergency care before hospital transport. Nationally, surveillance data compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research shows direct traumatic fatalities in high school football average roughly four occurrences per year, with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries accounting for the primary causes.
