Shawnee Mission investigates football player’s death. Was summer practice heat a factor?

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The Shawnee Mission school district is investigating after Northwest High School sophomore Ovet Gomez Regalado died last week following a medical emergency during football conditioning.

He’s one of at least four students who died after football practices across the country this month.

Gomez Regalado was participating in off-season training last Wednesday when he had a medical emergency, district officials confirmed. Emergency responders arrived at the school, at 12701 W. 67th St. in Shawnee, at 5:32 p.m., where the 15-year-old student was found in critical condition, said Joe Folsom, spokesman with Johnson County MED-ACT.

Folsom said the student was treated and transported to a local hospital. Shawnee Mission district spokesman David Smith said school officials learned Friday morning that Gomez Regalado had died.

Officials have declined to provide additional details or the cause of his death. Barbara Mitchell, a spokeswoman with the county health department, said an investigation is ongoing. The medical examiner’s office has completed an autopsy, she said, but a final report is not done.

“For any serious incident, our standard protocol would involve following up to understand what happened,” Smith said of the school district’s investigation. “It will involve looking at everything that led up to the incident, and how the incident was handled, to see if there is anything that we can learn, in order to prevent future incidents.”

What we know about the heat

When asked for specifics about Wednesday’s football training and whether students participated outside for the duration of it, Smith said, “I am unable to share additional specific information about this incident, due to confidentiality protections under federal law.”

But as other districts across the country report similar cases of football players dying after collapsing during summer practice, some in the community are raising alarms about school protocols for athletics during extreme heat.

Last Wednesday, Kansas City’s recorded temperature was 87 degrees at 5 p.m. then 89 degrees at 6 p.m., according to archived data observed at the downtown airport. Temperatures observed at the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe were recorded at 86 degrees at 5 p.m., then 87 at 6 p.m.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association, or KSHSAA, offers districts guidance for adjusting safety protocols when athletes are practicing outside on hot days. KSHSAA warns that heat cramps, exhaustion and heatstroke, which can be deadly, all could result from prolonged participation in sports outside.

KSHSAA guides districts to keep an athletic trainer or health care personnel on site during extreme temperatures and implement other safety protocols, including having a cooling area with equipment such as cold water tubs and ice when the temperature is 80 degrees or higher.

On hot days, KSHSAA advises schools monitor the so-called Wet Bulb Globe Temperature , a tool that measures air temperature, humidity and wind to help determine the risk of heat-related illness. If that measure is above a certain level, KSHSAA recommends shortened practices, extra breaks and other precautions.

Alex Krull, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Kansas City, said the measure is useful to determine when practice is safe, as that can vary depending on the location. It is unclear what that temperature was at the time of conditioning last week.

“The idea is gauging what the temperature might be over a blacktop asphalt parking lot versus a grassy field, or over AstroTurf surrounded by aluminum bleachers,” Krull said. “Some days it might be a bad idea to have a marching band on an asphalt blacktop parking lot, but on a grassy field it might be fine for the day.”

Smith did not provide details on what protocols were in place during football conditioning last Wednesday, but said, “Coaches are trained to monitor weather conditions, and to put appropriate protections in place when necessary.”

It is so far unclear whether the heat or other factors played a role in Gomez Regalado’s death. Smith said that per KSHSAA regulations, student physicals were due between May 1 and when regular season practice started on Aug. 19. The conditioning sessions last week were pre-season training.

Earlier this month, a Virginia high school football player died during a team practice, when players took a water break after about 40 minutes of drills, USA Today reported. The outlet also reported that a 14-year-old football player in Alabama died this month after collapsing during team practice.

And last week, a 16-year-old Maryland football player died after suffering a medical emergency on the athletic field, according to The Baltimore Sun.

In the Kansas City metro last year, Myzelle Law, a 19-year-old football player at MidAmerica Nazarene died . A GoFundMe created for his medical and funeral costs, said the student “sustained heat-related injuries” and was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center last July.

The Shawnee Mission school community has been mourning the loss of Gomez Regalado, who joined the Northwest football team as a freshman last year. Friends and teachers have described Gomez Regalado as a kind, funny and positive student.

“Ovet was such a warm and wonderful student that touched the hearts of so many in our community,” Shawnee Mission Northwest principal Lisa Gruman wrote in a letter to families last week.