PROVO — A missionary who died Wednesday playing basketball at the LDS Church's Missionary Training Center was a charismatic athlete who was the sole member of his family to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Joshua Neal Englehart, 20, Las Vegas, was the middle son of John and Kerry Englehart.
He arrived at the MTC about a month ago to prepare for a proselyting mission in the Spanish-speaking Kentucky-Louisville mission, said LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills.
Craig Call, bishop of the LDS Green Briar Ward in the Las Vegas Nevada Paradise Stake, said Englehart was "an exceptional young man, an exceptional athlete, very energetic and very bright."
Call described Englehart as a handsome young man with an athletic build.
Sports stories that appeared in Las Vegas newspapers described the 6-foot-5-inch center as a key player in Cimarron-Memorial High School's basketball games.
Police at Brigham Young University said Englehart had just completed a slam dunk as a warm-up in the MTC gymnasium when he collapsed Wednesday afternoon.
BYU Police Lt. Greg Barber said emergency medical personnel were called by MTC officials around 4:50 p.m.
"He had kind of gone up for a slam dunk as a kind of an exercise," Barber said, "He leaned up against another missionary and said he didn't feel good and collapsed."
A doctor and two nurses at the MTC who immediately responded to cries for help reported that Englehart was not breathing after his collapse.
Barber said 20 seconds after the collapse MTC staff began trying to revive him.
A minute later, BYU police responded to find the MTC doctor performing chest compressions. Barber said MTC staff did not report that Englehart had any kind of pre-existing heart condition. "There's no indication in the report of any pre-existing condition," Barber said.
Police said emergency medical technicians from BYU and Provo arrived two minutes after Englehart collapsed and attempted to defibrillate him but were not successful in reviving his heartbeat.
Madeline Slippin, a secretary at Cimarron-Memorial High School, said everyone was in shock over the news of Englehart's death.
"We're just sick. He's a great, great kid," Slippin said. "I loved to watch him play basketball."
Englehart's parents were in Salt Lake City Thursday. Englehart has two brothers, Jeff and Aaron, Slippin said.
The last missionary to die while attending the MTC was in 1995 when a 19-year-old Hawaiian man slipped and fell 400 feet while on an unapproved hike in Rock Canyon.
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