Saint Mary’s student, 19, dies after collapsing during rugby team training

The family of a Saint Mary’s rugby player who died after collapsing during training last week is seeking answers as they grieve.

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Dominic Peterson was a 19-year-old sophomore at the Moraga college who graduated from Gunn High School in Palo Alto. Peterson grew up playing rugby for the East Palo Alto Razorhawks and was a budding star on the scene, playing for the USA Rugby U-19 team this summer in an international tournament where the Americans won gold. Dominic’s father, Robert Peterson, told KPIX-TV his son had spent the summer “running every hill” in his Los Altos Hills hometown.

Last Friday, Dominic Peterson was on a training run of less than 2 miles, which his teammates told KTVU-TV they often do during the season. Toward the end of the run, Mario Storti, who played on the Saint Mary’s rugby team until last spring, told KTVU-TV he witnessed Peterson collapse; he said Peterson initially tried to get up and say he was fine before he needed further assistance and collapsed again.

“I said a prayer right there, just to hang on, kind of like keep fighting, because that’s who he was. He was a fighter. He never backed down from any challenge,” rugby captain Matthew Abbes told KTVU-TV.

Peterson didn’t show signs of struggling prior to the run — in fact, it was quite the opposite, based on how teammates and family members describe the 6-foot-4, 220-pound athlete.

“He was the fittest on a very fit team,” Robert Peterson, himself a former rugby player, told KPIX-TV. 

Saint Mary’s announced his death in a statement on Saturday from school president Roger J. Thompson. The school also hosted a memorial mass that day and offered counseling and support services to anyone on campus who needed it in the aftermath of the sudden tragedy.

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The school also set up the Dominic Peterson Memorial Fund at the request of his family, with any proceeds given in his honor going to help the school’s men’s rugby team, which is run as a club sport but considered one of the top programs in the country. 

“It’s very, very important that we make sure he leaves behind a legacy,” Dominic’s mother, Rose Peterson, told KPIX-TV. 

His cause of death is still unknown, and the family is awaiting answers. The Contra Costa County medical examiner’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

“At this point, we don’t actually know the technical component of his passing,” Robert Peterson told KPIX-TV. “So that’s something we have great interest in because he was such a fit kid.”