The anniversary of the on-court-death of Loyola Marymount men’s basketball player Hank Gathers was in early March. Gathers died 35 years ago of cardiac arrest during the 1990 West Coast Conference basketball Championship. Despite increased attention by doctors, coaches, and players, recent cardiac issues have impacted other student athletes as well.
Shortly after their game on January 7, Holy Cross (Waterbury) boys basketball player, sixteen year old, Tylon Lott collapsed suddenly in the locker room after a game against Kennedy High School
“We won a big game, so everyone was excited, fooling around, joking. At first, when he went down, we just thought Ty was fooling around,” Head Coach Michael Wilson said in an interview with NBC News.
A teammate of Lott’s, Evan, ran to get help and found three first responders, a firefighter named Terry Innabinet, a nurse Megan Vance Perrone, and another nurse who is also Wilson’s wife, Lisa Mariano.
“When I walked in, all I saw was his leg not moving. I saw them all working on him, and I thought I had lost my son,” Tasha Lott, the mother of the teen, said in an interview with NBC News.
The trio performed CPR on the young athlete for 12 minutes prior to him being transported to the Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was put into a medically induced coma.
“As a coach it rocked my world. I am super competitive and want to win at everything but winning has a way different value to me now. Winning is being your brother's keeper and having a never ending endurance to persevere and fight. Winning is having a purpose bigger than yourself and spreading love,” said Wilson. “Ty and his whole family have made it a point to give their angels a big hug every time they see each other and just spread love.”
On January 14, Lott went into a 4-5 hour long surgical procedure where he was given an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to regulate irregular heart rhythms.
The procedure went so well, Lott was dismissed from the hospital and went home with his family, returning to school on January 22.
“We are not sure what Ty's future holds on the basketball court as he is not cleared for full participation yet, we continue to pray and have hope that he will once again put a uniform back on,” said Wilson.
This hasn’t stopped the young athlete from helping other people with similar conditions. Lott has started a foundation named A Lott of Heart where they host events for free EKGs to detect any concerns. The first event was held at the Waterbury YMCA, which had over 400 kids and teens were able to receive free screenings. At this event, four families detected unusual patterns and were recommended to have follow ups.
Another local athlete who has brought awareness to cardiac health through their own story is London King, a freshman at UConn college and now manager of the Men's Basketball team.
When Kingwas fifteen he had already suffered from two episodes of cardiac arrest and a heart surgery. Currently, King has had four episodes of cardiac arrest, the most recent being on his family vacation in the summer of 2024, and two surgeries.
King’s first experience was when he was just 10 years old, and the next five years later. Both incidents were diagnosed as seizures until his parents were recommended by his school nurse to get his heart checked.
His parents requested an EKG at the children's hospital, which shed light onto his heart arrhythmia, a life-threatening condition where the heart has irregular rhythms.
At 15 years old, King was given the option to have a heart surgery that would implant a device above his heart to track its beating patterns, a basketball career ending procedure.
Ultimately, King chose to get the surgery, which took place on March 22. King, a lefty, was not able to use his left arm for the following months, and transferred from his private school, Northwest Catholic, to his local public high school in South Windsor.
After two years with no health issues, King experienced his third episode in his senior year, leading to him getting a replacement device on his heart.
King went from working out 3-4 hours a day in addition to basketball practice and games, to just an hour and a half of physical activity a day.
“I think it changes a lot about how you view your own life and your day to day habits,” King said. “I feel like I can still do a lot of physical activity, but always in the back of your mind it's just thinking about what could happen to you. If I were to have another cardiac arrest, could this be my last?”
King’s story was heard by the founder of a non-profit organization named In a Heartbeat, Mike Papale. King and Papale both shared similar stories, experiencing cardiac arrest episodes that eventually ended their basketball career.
“He heard my story and reached out to me, and obviously I’m gonna be all in for that,” said King, who now helps advertise and run heart screening events with the organization in hopes to raise awareness of this health issue.
King’s first event was in his hometown, at South Windsor High School. At these events, anyone from ages 8-25 can sign up for free, walk in the EKG test in their heart. Their results are sent to the nearest hospital if any irregular heart rhythms are noticed.
At this event, there were about 120 people who came to get their heart scanned in the span of just a few hours. The UConn Men's Basketball Team posted about the event and King helped run the tests and advertise for the event.
Currently, King is trying to set up a heart screening event at UConn, and is helping host one this upcoming May at ESPN, where his parents Lydell and Haley, both work.
King isn’t limited to advertising just physical health in young teens, he does public speaking events on mental health in teens as well.
“I've done public speaking for not just athletes, but young kids, talking about mental health and what it takes to get to where you wanna be,” King said. “Obviously not everyone is going through my situation, but everyone always hears the same messages, ‘You gotta work hard for what you want, and you gotta keep pushing’ but I think it's not talked about enough, mental health as a kid.”
Though King may not be able to be out on the court with his team, being a manager for the men’s basketball team has filled this void.“I feel like it's the same being a player vs manager in terms of you are just trying to get to one goal, so in that sense, it's almost like you're a player,” said King. “Obviously not being on the court is different in the sense that you learn a new perspective of the game and I feel like as a person.”
King’s journey has been one of self discovery and realizing that basketball can still be a major part of his life in many other aspects.
“It's helped me grow, in terms of learning more, just overall in life, figuring out there's other things you can do to reach the same goal.”
As a manager, King gets to review film of his school’s team, and their opponents, learning plays, what his team could improve on, and anything else to increase their chances of victory throughout the season.
Seeing the game through a new perspective, King has improved in the game on more levels than just physical, which is necessary for an aspiring coach like himself.
“To be honest with you, being a manager I have learned a lot about basketball and about myself,” said King.
Cardiac issues have made their way to the legislature as well. At the start of 2025, the Senate passed Bill 1350, which requires schools to have cardiac emergency response plans, as well as AEDs on site and funding for such. King testified in front of the Senate, sharing his story, which ultimately led to the unanimous decision in ratifying the Bill on February 20, 2025.
More recently, at the Boston Volleyball Festival a young athlete John Verbo suffered from a cardiac arrest on the court on February 21. Verbo was a 16 year-old junior at Colonie Central High School, located in Albany, New York.
Verbo was playing on his first day of the tournament when he was struck by a volleyball during the game. Police and ambulance personnel responded to the cardiac arrest call. From there, Verbo was taken to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where he later passed away on February 25 after four days in critical condition..
The mother of one of Verbo’s teammates immediately started a GoFundMe the day he went to the hospital to raise money to support the medical needs of Verbo. The goal was $50,000 and by February 22, they had already raised over $40,000. The GoFundMe was ended, with a total of $76,000 raised.
On social media accounts, XL Volleyball, the Boston Volleyball Festival, and several other communities including Capital Sliders Volleyball themselves, have made posts to bring awareness to the tragic incident that took place.
Volleyball officials on site and the Verbo family have not disclosed any details of the event, but a coach from a volleyball club located in Arizona told Anthony Krolikowski from NEWS10 that an AED was used on the court in attempts to revive the athlete.
Newtown High School alumni Steven George, currently the NHS Graphics teacher and former head football coach, experienced having a player on his team with similar heart conditions as Lott and King.
George started as an assistant coach in 1999 and was promoted to head coach in 2007 until stepping down as an assistant coach in 2017 for one final year. Towards the end of his coaching career, a two-way starter was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, or DCM. The athlete was experiencing reduced levels of blood being pumped from his heart due to an enlarged and weakened heart muscle.
At the start of Junior year, the player was not cleared to play due to increased risk of experiencing cardiac arrest.
“When I found out he was diagnosed, I thought he would never play again,” said George.
Soon after, the athlete received a pacemaker, which is a medical device that is implanted on the heart to regulate irregular rhythms. After this surgery, the athlete was cleared to play and finished his high school season without experiencing any medical emergencies related to his condition.
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