WRENTHAM - A King Philip Regional High School football player was seriously injured Saturday night at the team's training camp in Maine when a large branch ripped off a tree and hit him in the head during a fierce thunderstorm.

The victim's name has not been released, but police said he is a 15-year-old from Wrentham who was attending the King Philip football team's pre-season practices at Camp Skylemar, a large outdoor recreational facility in Naples, Maine.

News of the accident came just days after a 15-year-old from Easton, Aaron Ortiz, drowned while attending a joint football training camp held by Oliver Ames and Norton high schools at Camp Cobbossee in Monmouth, Maine.

In a telephone interview, Naples Fire Chief Chris Pond said the accident took place at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, at the height of an intense storm that knocked out power to more than 12,000 homes and businesses, according to media reports.

A receptionist at the camp said the facility's electrical power had not yet been restored as of 7 p.m. Sunday. The victim was standing outside in an area of the camp filled with guest cottages and surrounded by tall pine trees, Pond said, when a branch measuring eight inches in diameter fell and struck him in the head.

The fire chief described the blow that the teenager received as "worse than a concussion." The victim was conscious and breathing when emergency personnel arrived, Pond said, but he was in "bad pain."

The victim was rushed from the woods to a hospital about 15 minutes away, where he was stabilized. From there he was taken to the trauma unit of Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, the state's second-largest city.

King Philip's athletic director, Steve Schairer, and the school's football coach, Brian Lee, did not return phone calls from The Sun Chronicle. The school's Web site contained no information about the incident as of late Sunday night.