The young man who drowned in Shuswap Lake last week has been identified as Nathan Falito, according to social media posts from a family member.
Tributes from the football community poured in for the 22-year-old athlete who played in the Canadian Junior Football League in Langford, B.C., for the Westshore Rebels and in Alberta for the Edmonton Huskies.
“Nathan was an outgoing, dynamic and bright young man taken far too soon,” the Westshore Rebels said in a social media post.
The University of Calgary said it had been recruiting Falito for the school’s football team.
“Nathan was an outstanding player who we had hoped would join our program, and we grieve with you all,” the university’s football team said on social media.
The head coach of the Edmonton Huskies said that Falito was a member of that team from 2015 until he left prior to the end of the 2017 football season.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Nathan’s teammates on the Westshore Rebels as well as the Falito family, specifically Nathan’s mother and sister, during this difficult time,” Huskies head coach Iain MacLean said in an email to Global News.
Shuswap Search and Rescue said they were called in Thursday afternoon to help search for a man who had disappeared while swimming out to a dock at Canoe Beach in Salmon Arm.
Police have confirmed the RCMP’s underwater recovery team has since recovered the man’s body from the lake.
RCMP would not independently confirm the man’s identity nor provide information about how the drowning occurred saying the file has now been passed to the coroner.
– with files from Global News’ Doyle Potenteau and Allison Bench