A 16-year-old Altoona boy drowned in Raystown Lake Sunday at a crowded public swimming area.

Eugene Ciccarella was tossing a football in the water at Tatman Run north of Raystown Resort about 3:30 p.m. with two friends, when he swam past the buoy line marking the edge of the swimming area, apparently to retrieve the football, supervisory ranger Jude Harrington said.

Meanwhile, his companions turned and headed for the beach, noticing only as they reached it that Ciccarella wasn't with them - or anywhere in sight, state Trooper Charlie Aungst said.

Figuring Ciccarella might have met someone he knew or come back in without their noticing, they began searching for him among the crowd, Aungst said.

Eventually, they called for park rangers, who showed up at 4:47 p.m., Aungst said.

Divers found Ciccarella's body in 11 feet of water about 20 feet beyond the buoy line about 6:20 p.m., Harrington and Aungst said.

Neither Harrington, Aungst nor Huntingdon County coroner Dave McGarvey could understand how Ciccarella drowned without anybody noticing.

"If he was struggling and yelled for help, there's no way someone wouldn't have heard," Harrington said. "[But] nobody saw him go under."

Maybe he cramped and went down quickly, Harrington surmised.

Ciccarella had no physical problems that might have led to the drowning, as far as he knows, Aungst said.

There was no evidence that drugs or alcohol played a role, Harrington and McGarvey said, and Ciccarella was reportedly a good swimmer.

While the crowded conditions almost guaranteed he would have gotten help if he cried out, those same conditions probably led to the delay in his friends raising the alarm because it masked his going under, Harrington said.

Inside the buoy line, the maximum depth is five to seven feet, Harrington said.

It was windy Sunday afternoon, which could have blown the football, Harrington said.

The companions were "very upset and distraught" afterwards, McGarvey said.

Lost son

Eugene's father, Anthony, got the call to come to the lake while at work and suspected something awful. But he remained hopeful, even after the ambulance that he knew contained Eugene passed him slowly, without any flashing lights or a siren.

He didn't lose hope until he saw a state trooper at the hospital door.

Eugene was taking woodworking in school, and his father - who has been in construction for years - bought a table saw for a shop where they could work together.

"It's the things that I'm not going to be able to do that I'm having trouble with," Anthony said.

His son loved to skateboard.

Anthony discouraged it at first, but Eugene made sure his dad saw the tricks, so he'd be proud.

And he was.

Eugene was shy but took a date to the ninth-grade social Friday.

"I tied his tie for him," Anthony said.

The pants and shirt from the dance were still laying on his bed.

He and sister Anna, 14, were close.

Anthony is worried about Anna, who can't bear the thought of sleeping at home yet.

Eugene liked to write - a teacher said he had a gift for it - and he liked to fish.

The time he spent with his dad diminished as he collected more friends, but Anthony still had lots of plans.

"He really loved me," he said. "I'm played out now."

Fatalities

Raystown Lake averages a fatality a year, including deaths from boat crashes and heart attacks, Harrington said.

The last drowning occurred in September 2008, when a man from Lititz fell out of his canoe near Seven Points.

The Army Corps, which supervises activities at the lake, doesn't use lifeguards at its beaches, Harrington said. The corps believes the responsibility for safety falls on lake users.

"We expect parents to watch their kids and obey the rules," he said.

"It's worked pretty well in the past."

Still, rangers regularly patrol and call attention to the rules when it finds violations at the beaches, he said.

Sunday's drowning wouldn't seem to justify any revisions of those rules for Raystown, he said.

Ciccarella drowned between the buoy line and an orange trash boom that stretches across the mouth of the small cove that includes the swimming area, Harrington said.

Dr. Harry Kamerow will perform an autopsy today at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon.

The dive team from Robertsdale Wood & Broad Top Fire Department found the body.

Pellegrine's Lounge employees took up a collection Sunday evening and will plan a benefit soon, said Anthony, who's worked as a doorman there 10 years.