Community Mourns Death of Joey Ciancola

While the Ciancola family of Orange is suffering the unbearable loss of 20 year old Joseph "JoJo" Ciancola, the community also is trying to deal with the news.

At last night's selectman's debate a family friend told Patch that Joey's grandparents had gone to visit him at the University of Rhode Island last weekend and on Monday he collapsed during a baseball practice with a 105-degree temperature.

He was brought to South County Hospital in Wakefield, RI and later transported to Rhode Island Hospital.

Our source said Joe lost his kidney and liver functions, and was put into a medically induced coma. All tests showed he had no drugs in his system.

"He went into cardiac arrest on Wednesday night, but they were able to bring him back," she said.

She said complications in his condition were a mystery and he died sometime around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday while on the way to the operating room.

At Amity, Joe was known as a "really nice kid" and a phenomenal athlete.

At the 2010 Amity Awards Ceremony, he was named Athlete of the Year and was the recipient of the Baseball Most Valuable Player Award, B-O-W Youth Hockey Award co-recipient and the winner of the Mark E. Greco Memorial Hockey Award.

He signed on to pitch at Winthrop University in South Carolina, but transfered to URI and sat out his freshman year.

News spread quickly

Moments after he died, friends began posting messages on Joey's Facebook page, from old classmates to former teammates, aquaintances and lifelong friends, the love is obvious.

Amity classmate John Jorge got the news while taking a test in school Thursday night. The Patch breaking news brief came up on his cell phone.

Jorge was visibly shaken while working at Nuvita later that evening.

"We went to kindergarten together, graduated from Amity together," he said. "He was such a good kid, a nice kid...I can't believe this."

The following story appeared on the University of Rhode Island Website at http://is.gd/Q1rt0R shortly after Joe's death.

Last night NBC News 10 in Providence said the cause of death has not been determined:

Officials say he suffered a medical emergency during a workout on Monday and was transported to South County Hospital. Doctors then transferred him to Rhode Island Hospital where he died on Thursday.