High School Football Player Dies from Cardiac Complications

PEARLAND, TX -- Students, family, and friends are mourning the death of a Shadow Creek High School student who collapsed and died during a high school football game Friday night in San Antonio.

Chase Lightfoot, 17, and a junior, collapsed on the field during the second half of the game against St. Mary’s Hall, and received treatment from medical personnel before being transported to a hospital, where he died at 2:30 a.m. the following day.
"He came off the field, fell on the ground. I was in shock. Couldn't do anything," his friend and teammate Damien Jackson told KTRK.

Friends and classmates held a vigil at the Shadow Creek High School parking lot Saturday evening, spelling out his high school number 65 with candles.

"It's just really hard to accept that he's gone, but things happen and he's in a better place now, so that's all that matters. He will live in our hearts forever," friend Olivia Brown said.

Grief counselors from the district's crisis response team will be at Shadow Creek High on Monday to help students, Principal Kelly Hestand told the Houston Chronicle.

"As educators, there is nothing we deal with more difficult than the loss of a child," Hestand wrote in a statement. "This will be a difficult week for our campus. It will also be a time for us to pull together and show support for the young man's family as well as those closest to him."

An autopsy was conducted on Lightfoot at the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office in San Antonio, which determined Lightfoot died from cardiovascular issues.

No details about Lightfoot's medical history were available Saturday.

Seven high school players nationwide died from injuries suffered on the football field in 2015.

The leading cause of death among high school athletes is sudden cardiac arrest, according to a study by the Heart Rhythm Society.

More than 75 Texas high school athletes have died from sudden cardiac arrest since 2005.