Dad says heat factored in death of football player
09:36 PM CDT on Monday, August 31, 2009
SAN ANTONIO — The father of a 13-year-old boy found dead the morning after his first football practice at a Texas middle school said Monday that he thinks his son might still be alive had the team not been playing in sweltering triple-digit heat.
Brent Shinn McGhee did not wake up Aug. 25, the morning after Vernon Middle School held its first practice. Temperatures in the rural north Texas area climbed as high as 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Brock McGhee said his son had epilepsy and took medication for his condition, but believes the death was partly related to the heat. The official cause of death has not been determined, and it will likely be weeks before a final autopsy is complete.
“Putting kids through this to win a football game. It makes no sense,” Brock McGhee said. But he added that he did not blame his son’s coaches.
Tom Woody, superintendent of the Vernon Independent School District, said he didn’t think it was too hot to hold practice and defended his coaches and school policies. He said players had plenty of access to water and were supervised closely.
“I think we had the safeguards in place that were appropriate,” Woody said.
Scrutiny over protecting athletes from heat-related illnesses, while always an issue at the start of each football season, has intensified over the past year.
In Kentucky, a football coach went on trial Monday charged with reckless homicide in the death of a 15-year-old who collapsed during practice last August and died three days later.
Heat illness got more attention this summer when the National Athletic Trainers’ Association released a set of recommendations on how coaches should acclimate players to the heat. Among them were no two-a-day practices the first week for high school teams.
Woody said the middle school practiced for about 1 ½ hours the first day; Brock McGhee said it was closer to two hours. Details of the practice were muddled, but players worked out while wearing a helmet and shirts and shorts. They did not wear any other padding.
Brock McGhee, 30, said his son looked red and was thirsty after his mother picked him up from practice. But aside from telling his dad that practice was hard, Brock McGhee said his son gave him no indication that he was having health problems.
The next morning, McGhee went to wake up his son for school and found him unresponsive. He was rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Brock McGhee said he didn’t know if coaches knew his son was epileptic. Woody said the school had records noting Brent’s epilepsy but was unsure whether the coaches did, too.
Seizures can happen at any time and are unpredictable, said Dr. Paul Van Ness, a neurologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He said stresses, like heat, can trigger seizures in some people. But he also said a person who was overheated would be likely to show symptoms.
Woody said the school had no policies to adjust practice based on the temperature. He said the school made no changes to how practices are conducted after Brent’s death, and noted the temperatures have dropped since the first week of practice.
Vernon, a town of about 11,000 people, is about 200 miles northwest of Dallas.