High School Basketball Star Dies On Court After Scoring Winning Shot

ABCNews

Celebration turned to tragedy Thursday night at a Michigan high school when 16-year-old Wes Leonard collapsed on the basketball court after scoring the game-winning shot in overtime, helping his team clinch a perfect season.

Leonard’s game-winning layup, which earned two of his 21 points that game, led the undefeated Fennville Blackhawks to a 57-55 win over Bridgman High School. Teammates reportedly hoisted in him the air moments before he collapsed.

“He made the shot and then the game was over, we had won, everyone rushed the court,” said Tobias Hutchins, a senior at Fennville High School who was at the standing-room-only game. “He did the team lineups where they all shake hands, the basketball team held him up, he started walking, then collapsed.”

The gym went quiet as coaches and players surrounded Leonard, who was lying on his back.

“Nobody knew for sure why he had collapsed and was suddenly on the floor,” said Tim Breed, a spokesperson for Holland Hospital who was also at the game.

Suspecting possible heat exhaustion, people tried to and cool Leonard down with ice packs while waiting for the ambulance.

“There was a sense of the crowd being stunned and just being shocked,” Breed said. “Those who were obviously close to him there were those who were crying so many people on their cell phones just a sense of disbelief. We had gone from a monumental high one minute literally a minute or two minutes later to this hushed sense of shock.”

Paramedics performed CPR and took Leonard to a defibrillator on the court. Soon after he was rushed by ambulance to nearby Holland Hospital, where he died two hours later at 10:40 p.m.

The cause of death remains unknown, but Breed said an autopsy would likely be performed.

Teammates and friends gathered at a church at midnight to remember Leonard, who was “pretty much friends with everybody,” according to Hutchins.

On Wednesday night, Leonard wrote on Facebook: “Got a good long shower …ready for bed and game tomorrow!!!!!”

Sudden death in young athletes is relatively rare, but a major concern among schools and professional organizations. It gained significant attention in 1990 with the death of 23-year-old Hank Gathers, a basketball star at Loyola Marymount University.

Gathers died after collapsing on the court during a game against the University of California, Santa Barbara. A medical examiner determined that Gathers suffered from hypertophic cardiomyopathy — an enlarged heart.

Screening tests that effectively detect “silent” heart problems that could cause sudden death, like cardiomyopathy, are limited. One reason for the dearth is the rarity of sudden death among young athletes. According to a 2003 review published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the prevalence is less than 0.5 percent — an infrequency that carries significant cost-benefit considerations.

In a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, recording the heart’s electrical activity during exercise by electrocardiography (at a cost of $40 per athlete) had no effect on predicting young athletes’ risk for cardiac arrest.

Currently, most U.S. high school and college athletic programs require athletes to complete a health history questionnaire and undergo a physical exam before they can participate. But the quality of both has been the topic of scrutiny, according to the NEJM review.

“The guidelines examiners are given for screening high school athletes are inadequate in 40 percent of the states when measured against the recommendations of the American Heart Association,” wrote Dr. Barry Maron, director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. “Improvements in the screening process related to history taking and physical examination would undoubtedly result in the identification of greater numbers of athletes with previously undiagnosed but clinically relevant cardiovascular abnormalities.”

Certain drugs and dietary supplements can boost the risk of cardiac sudden death, according to the NEJM review.

But sudden death is not always the result of heart defects. Head and spine trauma, asthma and aneurysm are also reported. Last October, 26-year-old Fran Crippen died during a swimming race off the coast of Abu Dhabi, possibly due to heat stroke.

Another Fennville athlete, 14-year-old wrestler Nathaniel Hernandez, died in Jan. 2010 following a seizure.

Leonard was also quarterback for the Fennville football team, which won the Southwestern Athletic Conference North Division championship this season. Leonard threw seven touchdowns in the winning game, according to the Sentinel.

Larry Gilbert, coach of one of Fennville’s biggest competitors, Gobles High School, said Leonard’s goal was to be a division 1 athlete.

“And he took care of his body, he worked out he knew what he had to do,” said Gilbert, who couldn’t believe the news. “When I coached against him I was trying to figure out to stop him but it was so exciting to see him play I’d have to keep my thoughts together to not get too wrapped up in watching him play.”

“You could never leave a Fennville game early because you knew what Wes was going to do,” Gilbert said. “If he dunks the ball you have to be here to see it.”