High school sophomore collapses during basketball conditioning

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A student is left with kidney and heart damage after pushing himself to make the Trezevant High School basketball team.

Sophomore Kerel Thompson told FOX13 he was rushed to the hospital after passing out in the heat during basketball conditioning last week. Kerel’s mother, Starkittkuss Thompson, says he’s recovering now but the situation could have looked a lot different.

“Something just told me just go to the school, you know, and just be with your son. I don’t know,” Thompson’s mother said.

Thompson’s mother said she went to observe her son’s conditioning practice with the cross-country team to prepare for basketball tryouts. Memphis-Shelby County Schools says the practice took place in an air-conditioned gym.

Thompson said the practice did include time outside, even when the heat index was in the upper 90s that day.

“First, we went outside to run the football field and back to the school for, I guess, like 10 minutes. So once we came back, we went straight into the outside gym. It was very hot inside there, and we had to lift weights,” Kerel Thompson said.

The basketball coach, whom the MSCS district says also coaches cross-country, said conditioning with the runners was to see if they could handle being on the basketball team.

Throughout practice, Kerel Thompson told his coach he wasn’t feeling well and began cramping. Thompson said his coach teased him when he told him this: “I told him I was cramping up bad. He said, ‘What do you want me to do, kiss it?’ as a joke.”

Thompson’s mother said this was no joking matter. By the end of practice, the teenager passed out. Thompson’s mother said she was thankful she was there, because if she wasn’t, she believed the day would’ve ended very differently.

A district spokesperson told FOX13 the school wasn’t holding practice on Monday, Aug. 18. The district hasn’t said what the plans are going forward for the week.

FOX13 also asked about the claim that the coach made about Kerel Thompson saying he was cramping up. The district has yet to reply.

Kerel Thompson is still recovering.