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A tragic loss Tragedy unfolded on a football field in La Pine last weekend when a high school player collapsed and later died, the victim of an undiagnosed heart ailment that left him dead at 17. Alex Taylor, the senior class president, collapsed before kickoff Friday night. When paramedics reached him on the field, his heart was racing at 300 beats per minute due to what doctor's later determined was Wolf Parkinson White syndrome, which can trigger fatal irregularities in heart rhythm. Nothing in the preseason physical examination - including doctors' interviews with the student and his family about past medical history - likely could have averted the teen's death, La Pine High School officials said. It was simply a case of a promising young man's life being cut short by a lurking disease inside his body. Millions of high school athletes run their bodies to the breaking point during organized sports each year, and sadly, some die because of it. Last year, 12 football players died in America: six due to injuries on the field, and another six from medical conditions, such as heart problems. High school administrators and doctors in Ashland say there is little school districts can do to fully ensure the safety of a player in organized sports. Routine physicals can catch a host of abnormalities in blood pressure, heart size or other areas, which may eventually lead to trouble on the field of play, they say. But apart from sending students to high-cost examinations on treadmills - where the affects of stress on the body can be better determined - one doctor said it's almost impossible to catch a killer inside a boy's or girl's body before it's too late. Today, the small 450-student high school where Alex Taylor played, along with the entire town of La Pine, is mourning the loss of not only a student athlete, but a leader among his peers. We mourn with them, because Ashland is a town full of serious athletes, from the middle school through the university, and some day the tragedy in La Pine could be repeated here. NEW Click here to visit the Daily Tidings archives. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Western Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Corvallis Gazette-Times | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | | Ashland Daily Tidings | Gresham Outlook | Springfield News | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Lee Northwest Publishing