While playing middle school football in 2006, Zackery Lystedt, 13, suffered a concussion. There was less awareness then about brain injuries, so after a short rest, he returned to play. He collapsed at the end of the game, was airlifted for emergency care and was found to have bilateral head bleeds. He survived, but now relies largely on a wheelchair. He has spent his life advocating for the concussion guidelines and protocols to protect youth athletes nationwide.

It's way past time we did the same for extreme heat. More than 9,000 high school athletes are treated for heat illness every year. We’ve now experienced record heat for 11 consecutive years, and the number of cases could easily grow as that record is expected to break again for the next several years.

In 2025, legislation named for Jordan McNair – a University of Maryland freshman football player who collapsed from heat stroke during an outdoor workout in 2018 and died two weeks later – was introduced in both the House and Senate. It would require high school and college athletic programs to implement heat illness emergency action plans in consultation with local emergency responders. But the bill has languished in Congress.

That’s a tragedy. As a result, more young athletes may needlessly suffer. In fact, unlike much of sports medicine, there can be no ambiguity: Adverse heat stroke cases and deaths in athletics are considered entirely preventable.

What's missing isn't the science. It's the Lystedt Law equivalent for extreme heat conditions: a protocol that takes the decision to keep playing out of the........

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