H.S. Football Player Dies In S.C.

Updated: August 1, 2011, 2:21 PM ET

Player death probed in South Carolina
ESPN.com news services

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Authorities are investigating the death of a 14-year-old South Carolina high school football player who collapsed following a weekend morning practice.

Darlington County Coroner J. Todd Hardee said Tyquan Xavier Brantley, a freshman at Lamar High School, died at a hospital late Saturday.

Hardee says tests are being conducted to determine if the death was heat related or from another cause. The heat Saturday afternoon rose to 101 degrees, a near-record, according to the National Weather Service.

"We are heartbroken at this terrible tragedy," Dr. Rainey Knight, superintendent of the school district, said, according to the Florence Morning News.

Darlington County School District spokeswoman Audrey Childers said it was the team's second day of light practice in helmets but no pads. Brantley was walking off the field when he started to complain about cramps and then collapsed, Childers said in the News' online report.

Childers said players were on the field about an hour and got a five-minute water break every 20 minutes. She said the team resumes practice Monday night.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Tyquan Xavier Brantley had just taken part of the second day of practice and was walking off the field when it happened.

This is very sad, and what's worse, this is happening more & more

Emailed with TrueBlueWildcatGirl last year since she is/was a collegiate trainer and has done some work with high schools as well. A theory of hers and something that she had heard was that the sports drinks, not so much Gatorade or Powerade, but the Red Bull, the big caffeine power drinks that are all over and the 3-5 hour power pills are tipping these athletes over the edge of their natural health and with more stress and more crap to keep up with like Twitter, Facebook, etc. and in addition the HEAT, it's a no-win situation. Thought the power drink part was very interesting. I never played HS sports but I don't remember this back in the 1980s and 1990s. I may have missed something or forgot about it, but I can't remember anything like this.

I agree that sports drinks have a little bit to do with these deaths, but the biggest reason (in my opinion & they are currently studying this too) is that kids are spending all the time in a 74 degree climate then going out into 100 degree weather to play football....Kids who are going to play out in the heat need to get use to it before the season starts.

Good-point as well and as we discuss, two more kids today died in Georgia surrounding HS football practice.

don't mix sports drinks up with the red-bulls of the world. the fact they are allowed to be marketed as such and turn around and have the potential/are killing these kids is tragic. the increase demands that caffeine/stimulants from LEGAL unregulated substances coupled with the fact that for every 1.5 degrees your core temperature increase, your heart rate increases 30%, it's no wonder these situations happen.

additionally, there are no professionals there, typically, monitoring the athletes (watching for heat illness, able to determine cramps vs. rhabdo, etc).

The extreme heat this year has got a lot to do with it. I was cutting the grass last weekend and had to stop three times and take a break. I've never had to before. It was just too damn hot.