kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and KilleenChild Athletes in Peril: The danger of unknown heart conditions

Spring is in bloom and everywhere you look student athletes of all ages are competing.

If you go to an Ellison High School girls soccer game in Killeen, you'll find  Freddy Guerrero watching closely.

His freshman daughter Brooke plays regularly.

Guerrero is also a coach, and coached many of these girls before they reached high school.

However that's not the only reason he keeps a close eye on the game.

Guerrero said, "In a sport like soccer where they're constantly running, stopping and going, and then we play a lot of our games out in the sun, and so with the heat it's very important for the coaches and the parents to keep an eye on their kids."

Some coaches are pushing their players harder than ever.

That's why recent news of students collapsing on courts or fields, and dying shortly after, worries parents so much.

Kelly Scagliusi's daughter plays softball for Ellison HS.

She said, "Our kids go to school. We put our kids in the hands of teachers and trainers and coaches and if anything's wrong we are sure that they'll take care of it, and we certainly hope that they will."

Recent sudden student athlete deaths include Michigan high school basketball and football star Wes Leonard who died in March, shortly after hitting the winning shot, and collapsing on the court.

At a tournament in Austin in March, Roma High School junior Robert Garza collapsed and died shortly after high fiving a teammate and getting a glass of water.

Then, this month, during a PE class at New Boston High School, 15-year-old Stevie Surratt collapsed and died.

Dr. John Erwin, a Cardiologist at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, said, "Odds are in most of these cases it's a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or thickening of the heart muscle."

For parents, here's the scariest part.

Dr. Umad Ahmad is a cardiologist with Scott and White working at Metroplex Hospital in Killeen.

He said, "We have seen a lot of unexpected deaths on the spot.  They just fall down, they don't sometimes give us warning."

While these deaths are often unexpected, there are warning signs you can look for.

Ahmad said, "If anybody in your family died less than age 50 we certainly will ask all the family members to be cautious and start screening their young people."

Erwin adds, "Chest pain as the student tries to participate in sports, unusual shortness of breath, racing heartbeats, skipped heartbeats, fainting. Those would be some of the larger [warning signs] that we would look for."

There's also one very important step every parent should take, before your child ever hits the field, court, or ice.

Erwin said, "I think the biggest preventative measure is making sure and getting an annual physical by a physician prior to participating in sports competition."

Still, even after all of that, there could be no warning signs, and just a sudden collapse.

Guerrero said, "It's a really fine line. You want them out there being competitive. Sometimes you don't know if they're trying to be a little lazy, but their health is more important than everything.  So, as a coach and as a parent, if you have that tendency to notice something that might be wrong or different, their health is more important than anything, so it's better to get them off the field and take precaution on them."

There's another prevention tool available here in Central Texas to keep you safe from a heart problem as well.

Scott and White offers this on-line assessment of any possible lurking heart dangers. 

Reporter:Matthew LeBlanc/Photographer:Chris Buford