California high school football player presumed drowned in rip current

A California high school football player is believed to have drowned in a rip current after going missing while boogie boarding at Half Moon Bay, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Naphtali "Neff" Moimoi, an 18-year-old Hayward High School (California) defensive lineman, was boogie boarding at Poplar Beach with members of his football team last Thursday, the outlet reported.

A rip current pulled Moimoi out after he fell off his board and his teammates attempted to create a human chain to grab him. They were unable to reach him.

Rescue efforts did not find him, and it is believed he drowned.

On Friday, more than 100 people attended a vigil at Hayward, according to ABC7.

"He always pushed me on and off the field, with school and my grades. He was always working. He was just preaching to me how important it was to (good) grades and you gotta stay focused," Moimoi's childhood friend Russell Winston III told ABC7.

Moimoi had been a starter on the defensive line since freshman year, according to the Chronicle.

He was signed to play at the University of Wyoming next year.