National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - Briefly in the NewsFebruary 23, 1997A program with heartFlorida Atlantic University and the Boca Raton Community Hospital are teaming up to protect Florida Atlantic student-athletes from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart defect that is the most common genetic cause of sudden death in young athletes.
These screenings may avoid tragedies such as the one Florida Atlantic experienced last October when freshman basketball player Walter Turner III collapsed during stretching exercises in the school gym. He later died at the Boca Raton Community Hospital. While the 18-year-old athlete never had shown any type of a heart problem during his career as a basketball and football player at Miami Norland High School, an autopsy conducted shortly after his death found that he suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which had caused his heart to enlarge to twice its normal size. This genetic abnormality is thought to occur once in every 500 births, and it may escape detection during standard team physicals. The best way to diagnose the defect is with an echocardiogram, a relatively expensive procedure. Shortly after Turner's death, Dr. Ira J. Gelb, a retired cardiologist who serves on the boards of the Florida Atlantic University Foundation and the Boca Raton Community Hospital Foundation, began looking for ways to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Geld took the lead in developing an agreement between the university and the hospital, and an anonymous donor provided the funds for the program. The echocardiogram is administered at the hospital, less than a mile from Florida Atlantic's Boca Raton campus. Results are interpreted by cardiologists on the hospital staff and then reported to the university's team physician, who explains the findings to the students. If a problem is discovered, the student will be referred to a cardiologist. "Nothing is more important than the well-being of our student-athletes," said Florida Atlantic athletics director Thomas Cargill. "Echocardiogram screening will provide an extra measure of assurance that they are up to the physical challenges of vigorous intercollegiate sports. In a way, this is Walter Turner's legacy to all who come after him." Women vault forwardPole vault will debut as a Division I women's championship event this year at both the indoor and outdoor track and field championships. Qualifying standards for the indoor championships have been set at 3.40 meters (11-13Ž4) for provisional qualifying and 4.10 meters (13-51Ž4) for automatic qualifying. The U.S. women's record in the pole vault is 4.45 meters (14-71Ž4), held by Stacy Dragilia of the Rocky Mountain Elite club. Leading the effort to develop women's pole vaulting in the United States is USA Track and Field and its Women's Pole Vault Development Committee. During the last three years, the committee has spearheaded the effort to get the event recognized by the NCAA, the National Federation of State High School Associations and state high-school associations. Michigan and Minnesota added the girls' pole vault to high-school competition in 1998. Twenty states now allow girls to pole vault. Most-watched gameThe men's basketball showdown between then-No. 1 Duke University and then-No. 2 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was the most-watched telecast in ESPN2 history. Viewers in 1.6 million households watched the 97-73 Tar Heel victory. This eclipsed the former record of 1.2 million set by college football's BCA Classic last August. That game, between Ohio State University and the University of Wyoming, was seen in 1.2 million households. Double troubleThree players on the women's basketball team at the College of Saint Rose have their coaches seeing double. Junior center Evija Azace, freshman forward Mbuyi Mukendi and senior all-American forward Krista Kandere each recorded "double-doubles" for the second consecutive game as the Division II Northeast region's top-ranked team rolled to a 102-42 victory over Adelphi University January 24. -- Compiled by Kay Hawes |
The hospital recently began providing free echocardiogram screenings to all 240 student-athletes competing in intercollegiate athletics at the university. The program will continue to provide the noninvasive and painless ultrasound screenings to all incoming athletes each year.