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NAPLES — Like any teenager with a new driving permit, Russell Larabell always wanted to be behind the wheel. Even if it was only a short trip down the street.

"He just loved to be included in everything," said 27-year-old Ben Welzbacher on Sunday evening while reflecting on the death of his 16-year-old brother.

Larabell, a Naples High School sophomore, collapsed after a junior varsity football game at Barron Collier High on Oct. 1. He had been in a coma since and on Sunday was taken off his life-support system at Naples Community Hospital.

"He always had a smile on his face, and he loved his family a lot," Welzbacher said. "And he loved sports. He wasn't really one of those guys who was big on school. But I think getting involved in football down here was one of the things that helped him become more interested in his classes and getting better grades."

Welzbacher recalled one play in particular from this year's junior varsity football season.

"It was against Gulf Coast (High School) and there had been in interception," he said. " Rusty came from clear across the field to tackle the guy. I mean, he lit him up. We remember that play. That's the way Rusty was on a football field. If there was a pressure situation, he would always say, 'Put it on me. I want it.' "

Ben, who taught Rusty how to drive a stick shift, said his brother enjoyed listening to all kinds of music. He said Rusty adjusted well to a new environment in Collier County after the family moved from the St. Louis area last spring about two months before school was out.

"I know when there was talk about moving down here, my mom and my brothers were all kind of scared," Ben said. "But when Rusty got involved in weightlifting at Naples High during the summer, he said 'This is where I want to be.' He loved it."

Of course Ben wonders how Joshua Larabell, 15, a freshman on the NHS junior varsity football team, will learn from the events of the past 10 days. Ben says that if Joshua chooses to keep playing football, he will be supportive.

During the summer, while Joshua was in St. Louis, Rusty liked to hang around Ben's apartment.

"It was something else," Ben said fondly. "He would clean up things for me. He liked doing it, even cleaning the bathroom. And when he got done, you can bet it was clean. It was great to have him around."