Soon after Ashanta Laster reached the hospital, she was ushered into the emergency room where she saw doctors performing CPR on her teenage son.

Laster had gotten a call that 17-year-old Phillip Laster Jr., a lineman who played for a top Mississippi high school, had collapsed on the field during an August 2022 practice. At the time, the family says the heat index was 102 degrees (38.9 degrees Celsius) on the football field.

“They kept compressing his chest trying to bring him back. No response, no response. Never a heartbeat,” said Laster, recalling how she dropped her purse, called her husband and started praying.

“I said I was going to call all the prayer warriors and bring my son back. I wanted him to come back,” she continued. “At that point, it was just an unbelievable moment. I can’t believe my son was gone. I could not believe it ... I was in a state of shock ... that he died ... at football practice.”

The death of Laster underscores the dangers facing high school football players, mostly in the Southeast, who are collapsing and dying in late summer at the start of the season. Players are most at risk of suffering heat-related illnesses due to searing temperatures and high humidity. Those conditions have worsened in recent decades due to climate change, with extremely hot days becoming more frequent since 1970 in 88% of locations nationwide analyzed by Climate Central, a nonprofit science research group.

At least 58 players have died from exertional heat stroke between 1992 and 2024, according to the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, and thousands more are sickened each year. This summer has been especially bad, with five high school players dying since July of suspected heat-related illnesses, including 14-year-old Semaj Wilkins, who collapsed during drills last month at his Alabama high school practice.

One study found that high school football players are 11 times more likely to suffer heat illnesses than all other sports combined.

Experts believe football players are more vulnerable because they wear heavy equipment that traps heat and have bigger body sizes that produce more heat, especially offensive and defensive lineman who can weigh upwards of 300 pounds. They also may not yet be fully acclimated to working out in summer conditions, sometimes play on artificial turf which increases the heat and may have underlying health conditions.

“We know that heat stroke is the most severe version of heat illness, is the only one that is life threatening and also know that it uniquely afflicting football players specifically at high school and collegiate levels,” said Rebecca Stearns, the Institute’s chief operating officer, adding that their research found that 94% of cases over the past four decades of heat stroke in sports involved football players.

WNBA

playoff bracket set >> After the final day of a regular season with unprecedented growth and a historic rookie class, the WNBA postseason starts Sunday. Eight of the 12 WNBA teams make the playoffs and are seeded from one to eight, regardless of conference. The matchups of the best-of-three first round are as follows:

No. 8 Atlanta Dream at No. 1 New York Liberty...No. 7 Phoenix Mercury at No. 2 Minnesota Lynx...No. 6 Indiana Fever at No. 3 Connecticut Sun...No. 5 Seattle Storm at No. 4 Las Vegas Aces.

NBA

Embiid inks extension >> Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed to a three-year, $192.9 million maximum contract extension, a source familiar with the contract figures told CNN.

The deal includes a player option which, if activated, would see the 2022-23 NBA MVP remain in the City of Brotherly Love until the end of the 2028-29 season and guarantee him around $300 million — one of the most lucrative contracts in NBA history — according to ESPN and The Athletic.

NHL

Expansion Utah club extends forward >> The Utah Hockey Club signed forward Dylan Guenther to an eight-year extension worth $57.14 million on Friday.

Guenther will count just over $7.14 million annually against the salary cap over the term of the contract that runs through the 2032-33 NHL season. The 21-year-old is one of the youngest building blocks for the team that was known until earlier this year as the Arizona Coyotes and is now based in Salt Lake City.

“Dylan is elite in every aspect on and off the ice,” Utah general manager Bill Armstrong said. “He is a young, highly skilled forward with a shot that’s evolving into one of the best in the NHL.”

Guenther split last season between Arizona and the American Hockey League’s Tucson Roadrunners. He had 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points in 45 NHL games.