The young Whitehorse basketball player who fell from a fourth-floor balcony in Edmonton last week is awake and recovering, his coach said today.

"He's going to live,” Basketball Yukon president Jeff Cressman told the Star. "... That's huge when you fall from the fourth storey. Now we have to wait and see how his body recovers.”

Fifteen-year-old Brendan Matheson was in Edmonton with the Yukon's Western Canada Summer Games men's basketball team for a pre-games tournament when he fell from a balcony at the team's hotel last Thursday, coach Tim Brady told the Star Tuesday.

He was taken to University Hospital in the Alberta capital, where doctors put him into a coma "just to make sure his body didn't do anything crazy in those first days,” Cressman explained today. "It's standard procedure for situations like this.”

CTV Edmonton reported this week that Matheson fell while jumping from balcony to balcony, but Cressman said today that isn't entirely true.

A spokesperson from Basketball Yukon will explain what happened once the organization has seen to the needs of the players and coaching staff who witnessed the incident and its aftermath, Cressman promised.

"We just want to take care of these boys first,” he said, noting the team is on its way home today and will meet with trauma counsellors once in Whitehorse.

There were 15 players and three coaches on the Edmonton trip, according to Cressman.

Matheson's parents are in Edmonton with him, Brady said.

Matheson also plays bantam hockey with the Mustangs and Dave's Cleaning. He is originally from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

A prayer vigil for Matheson is being held at the United Church every day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. until July 15, with regular services on Sunday.

The Star incorrectly identified Tim Brady as the president of Basketball Yukon in Monday's edition.

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