A 22-year-old student at Hinds Community College, in Mississippi, died on Tuesday after collapsing on a practice field following a series of sprinting exercises, The Orlando Sentinel reported. The student, William Huzzie, a native of Orlando, Fla., was attempting to become a walk-on member of the Hinds football team.
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3 Responses to Football Player Dies After Workout at Hinds Community College
thais - April 9, 2010 at 5:43 pm
It has been a long time since I played football in the Mississippi Junior College system. I did try out for a walk-on spot at Perkinston Junior College and made it during the August training period. It was rough and any one trying out should be ready. What happened here could be for any number of reasons. We should not jump to any quick conclusions. It would seem however that 22 is rather old to be trying out for a spot. The scholarships are not that good to be doing it, Mr. Huzzie must have tried out for the love of the game. We have to respect him for that.
johntoradze - April 12, 2010 at 1:11 pm
It was 86 degrees and 95% humidity that day in the afternoon in Hinds Mississippi. He was a big man. The most likely cause of death was heat stroke brought on by excercising more than he was used to in a hotter place. Orlando’s temperature the month before averages highs 16 degrees cooler. This happens regularly in high school, college (and more rarely professional spring training) football camps. Coaches need to have ice on hand, lots of it, and know how to cool these big guys off when they get in distress. Here is how you do it. Get them on the ground, and if there is a cool place, carry them there. Pull their shoes and socks off, and cut off any shirt they have on. If there is ice, pack it around their head and neck first, then around their feet and hands. If they have thick hair and don’t come around right away, get scissors and cut it off to help them cool down. Get a hose with cool to cold water going on their belly. Send people out to a liquor store or grocery store for more ice. If you can’t get ice, then get cheap frozen vegetables like beans from the frozen food section. If you have vodka, whiskey, or something else with alcohol in it, pour it on their head and body. It will evaporate and cool them off. DO NOT WAIT FOR EMERGENCY PERSONNEL TO ARRIVE!! Start immediately – the instant the big man starts to say anything or falls over. Anyone can get heat stroke. But big men have a special problem in sports. They have less surface area to get rid of heat with. And because they are larger, when they run they are producing 4-8 times the internal heat from their muscles that normal size men can produce, and they only have 1.5 to 2 times the surface area to get rid of it. The bigger they are, the easier it is for them to overheat. Sprints are a special problem for heat stroke because it is possible to raise the temperature of the blood in the musculature to 104 degrees and up, and over the course of the next few minutes, the brain will overheat. It is overheating of the brain that kills in heat stroke. That is why it is important to pack the head and neck in ice or cold water right away. The feet and torso get rid of a lot of heat, which is why getting shoes and socks off are important. Running cold water over the person until they are feeling a bit cold will get them back.
johntoradze - April 12, 2010 at 1:17 pm
The usual mistake is to call an ambulance and wait. Ambulance personnel often don’t know how to diagnose or treat heat stroke on the spot either. When heat stroke hits you have minutes to save the guy’s life. If you don’t cool of their brain within a few minutes, they literally cook themselves and by the time they arrive at a hospital, get into the ER, get through triage, see a doctor, have the harried ER physician or RN figure out he is overheated, he’s dead. If you treat it instantly, the person will live and probably be fine. If you don’t, they almost always die. You have about 5 minutes and then it’s all over.