Las Vegas boy, 15, severely injured during crash of youth soccer team’s van in Idaho
Minutes after a van carrying 13 people flipped over earlier this month in rural Idaho, panic began to set in.
Most of the van’s occupants were teenage boys from Las Vegas on their way to a soccer tournament in Boise. After a quick head count, Charlie Quintal, the van’s driver and also the soccer team’s coach, thought everybody was accounted for.
To his horror, he saw that one of the boys was trapped under the van.
“Charlie started screaming, ‘Hey, there’s someone here, there’s someone here!’” said Jaime Serrano, a soccer dad who was in the van.
Alonso Tadeo Celis, 15, of Las Vegas, had been ejected from the van. The boy was taken by helicopter to a Boise-area hospital with serious injuries, according to Grant Vermillion, technical director for the Nevada Rush youth soccer program.
Tadeo Celis is a member of the Nevada Rush B2010 Select team. Serrano is the parent of a player in the program and also an assistant coach for a different Rush team.
Support for the injured boy has been pouring in.
As of Friday, a GoFundMe entitled “Rally for Alonso” had raised over $26,000 from close to 400 separate donations. “One of our players, Alonso, suffered severe injuries,” said a description on the online fundraiser, which was set up to help Alonso and his family.
As well on Friday, the Las Vegas Lights professional soccer team posted about Tadeo Celis on its social media pages, asking fans and others to donate to the GoFundMe to help with “medical costs and travel expenses.”
Serrano called Tadeo Celis, a defender, a “very skilled” soccer player and someone who “smiles a lot.”
As of Friday, Vermillion said he was told there were signs the teenager may be on the road to recovery.
“At the beginning, he was not given much of a chance,” Vermillion said. “He’s proven to be a true warrior. With the help of all the prayers sent his way, he’s coming along.”
The crash
According to a report from the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, the one-vehicle crash happened just before 9 p.m. on June 19 outside of Mountain Home, Idaho, about 45 miles outside of Boise, along Interstate 84.
The first officer at the scene noted the van came to a rest on its driver’s side about 50 yards from the interstate. Vermillion said the group rented a 2016 Ford Transit van.
The officer immediately noticed the crash had likely been caused by a “tire malfunction or a blowout,” according to the crash report. One of the rear tires had blown out, the report said, also noting that “all three of the other tires were low on tread and showed balding.”
Immediately after the crash, Serrano said Quintal kicked out the windshield so everyone could get out of the van.
Once Quintal noticed Tadeo Celis was trapped under the vehicle, a small group of good Samaritans helped as the group lifted the van enough so that he could be pulled out.
“We were rocking the van back and forth so that we had enough room to pull Alonso out by his hands,” Serrano said. “It was chaos then. Everyone thought he was pretty much dead. Everyone was devastated.”
‘One of the toughest kids I’ve ever known’
Serrano said he believed the teen’s life was likely saved by a stranger’s quick decision to perform CPR while everyone waited for medical personnel to arrive.
“All I can say is that there are some amazing people in Idaho,” Serrano said. “I’m not sure any of us were in a good state of mind at that time, but they were calm and they helped us.”
After Tadeo Celis was airlifted to a Boise trauma center, he underwent multiple surgeries, Vermillion said. He also said Tadeo Celis’ mother, who doesn’t speak English, has stayed with him in Boise. Vermillion said she has declined to do interviews.
“Alonso will have a lot of rehab to do after he is released,” Vermillion said. “They’ve been monitoring him closely.”
“Alonso is a really good kid,” Serrano added. “He’s a very positive kid and he’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever known.”
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.
