Texas high school football player dies from heat stroke after 'indoor' practice

A Texas high school football player died from a heat-related emergency during practice on Monday.

Texas high school football player dies after suffering heat emergency during practice. /

A young high school football player at Lancaster Early College High School died in the hospital Wednesday after suffering a heat-related emergency at practice on Monday, according to a report from KDFW Fox 4 News.

According to the report, the young man was sophomore Preston Malone, a member of the school's junior varsity team. He was 15 years old.

Malone was taken to the hospital Monday. Reports say doctors were hopeful he'd recover, but his condition worsened before eventually passing Monday morning.

Preston Malone Sr., the young man's grandfather told reporters that the practice was conducted indoors.

"They were not outside. They were indoors. Nevertheless, he still suffered an extreme heat stroke," he told Fox 4. 

Weather.com says the high on Monday in Lancaster was 100 degrees.

Lancaster Independent School District said its coaches and trainers were following heat safety protocols and procedures, which included moving the practice indoors, creating a cooling zone, and frequent water breaks.

According to a timeline verbalized by school district chief of communications Kimberly Simpson
(VIDEO), Malone was placed into a cool tub after telling coaches and trainers he wasn't feeling well during practice on Monday.

"Our athletic trainer was able to take his temperature, and it was at 104," Simpson said.

After the ambulance transported Malone to the hospital, Simpson says, "He never lost consciousness and was able to have conversations with our athletic trainer, the EMS staff, and our head coach. He shared with the coach he was even sorry for not finishing his workout."

That interaction was the last correspondence between Malone and any school staff. Malone was the under the full care of medical professionals at the hospital.

"They have a close-knit family. Myself along with our leadership team, our superintendent and our executive cabinet members were all at the hospital with the family yesterday. We know the family. They actually attended a town hall meeting, they have been great supporters of our district. And again it’s a tragic situation," Simpson said.

Lancaster High School has also canceled football practice for the remainder of the week and canceled an upcoming scrimmage against North Forney High School.

"Preston was a Tiger, an exceptional student — I was able to talk to some coaches this week about (Preston) — and all of them have stated that he did things the Tiger way," Simpson said. "The Tiger way was instilled in everything that he did, and he will be remembered in that way."

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