Published: Sat, Aug. 15, 2009 12:13PM

Modified Sat, Aug. 15, 2009 12:26PM

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CARY — Cary High School football player Michael White, who collapsed after a scrimmage Friday night, is in stable condition at Wake Med today, school athletics director Kurt Glendenning said.

Glendenning said doctors were optimistic about White’s condition, but they still have not determined what caused him to collapse. Play had ended at the Wakefield High School football field when the incident happened about 8 p.m.

“They are continuing to try to figure that out,” Glendenning said.

Glendenning said it was “a huge relief” to the other football players and coaches when they found out that White, 15, was in stable condition.

“It was scary,” Glendenning said. “They had never experienced anything like that before.”

Ben Kolstad, the head football coach at Cary, said today that the other players on the team were tired when they assembled for a scheduled practice this morning. He said they talked about White and how he was doing.

“Hearing that Michael’s stable and responding is uplifting to us,” he said. “The kids were better this morning than they were last night.”

Kolstad said that after meeting as a team to talk about White, the players practiced for a while.

“We tried to do a little bit of football to get their minds off it,” he said. “But we’re all praying for him.”

EMS responders used a defibrillator Friday evening to revive White, who was breathing on his own and aware of his surroundings before being taken to the hospital.