Advertisement

Louisiana high school football player collapses and dies after nighttime practice

A Louisiana high school player collapsed and died after practice Tuesday night. (Getty Images)
A Louisiana high school player collapsed and died after practice Tuesday night. (Getty Images)

A 15-year-old football player for a Louisiana high school collapsed and died on Tuesday night after practice.

The practice was scheduled for later at night to avoid exhausting players in the heat.

Terrance Allen collapsed in locker room

Via The Advocate, defensive tackle Terrance Allen, who would have been a sophomore this fall, was in the locker room laughing and joking with his Amite High teammates around 9 p.m. when he collapsed.

Practice had been planned for the evening because temperatures in the area - Amite City is about an hour’s drive east of Baton Rouge - had gotten to 90 degrees. In was still in the low 80s for the start of practice.

Defensive coach Henry Singleton performed CPR on Allen until firefighters and ambulance crews arrived. EMTs brought Allen to a local hospital, but he died en route.

He had no known medical issues. An autopsy was inconclusive. Further tests will be done to try to determine a cause of death.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was born in Amite City, said during a radio show that his wife, Donna, knew Allen; she had been a music teacher at Allen’s elementary school.

Fourth Louisiana football player to die since 2012

The Advocate reported that Allen is the fourth high school football player in the state over the last seven years, either while playing or directly after.

Fourteen-year-old Burke Cobb, a freshman at Dutchtown High, died in 2012 after a conditioning workout. It was later discovered he had an unknown heart condition.

In 2013, Farmerville High’s Jaleel Gibson, 17, died after sustaining a fractured vertebra in his spine during a contact drill. He was hospitalized but declared brain dead and his family made the decision to take him off life support.

In 2015, Franklin Parish High freshman Tyrell Cameron was killed from a hit during a game. Cameron was on punt coverage in the fourth quarter when he sustained a broken neck, which caused internal bleeding and led to his death.

Nine high school players nationally died from football-related injuries in 2018. Four were indirect fatalities, meaning they didn’t happen during game play, conditioning or practice but were confirmed as resulting from football. All were cardiac related.

More from Yahoo Sports: