SHARON SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) A Kansas high school football player has died after collapsing on the sidelines during a game, according to a school official.
Brian McVay, superintendent and principal of Wallace County schools, said Wednesday that Luke Schemm, a senior at Wallace County High School, died at a hospital in Denver where he was taken after collapsing during the game Tuesday night.
McVay said he didn't know why Schemm collapsed during the Eight-Man Division I game at Wallace County High in Sharon Springs, Kansas. He said the senior had just scored a touchdown and an extra point when he crumpled on the sideline.
''The team was gathered on the sidelines getting ready to go for the kick. Before they even left the sideline, he just collapsed,'' McVay said. ''But as far as why, I haven't had time to track that down.''
He said Schemm was taken by ambulance to a local hospital then flown to the hospital in Denver where he died. Sharon Springs is about 220 miles east of the Colorado city.
Gary Musselman, executive director of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, said game officials didn't see Schemm sustain any head or neck contact during the game.
He said if Schemm's death is determined to be football-related, it would be the third in Kansas in 17 years.
''Any death is one too many,'' Musselman said. ''We just are heartsick any time a youngster prematurely passes because of whatever reason.''
From July through Wednesday there have been 11 reported deaths in high school football in the U.S., according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The center said seven of those deaths were directly related to a football trauma and four were indirectly related, meaning other health issues contributed to the death.
