Heart of a Champion Day is an an annual free sports-specific health screening and educational program provided in partnership with Brenner Children's Hospital for high school student athletes. The screenings include a review of the athlete's medical history, a sports-specific medical and musculoskeletal exam, a heart exam and a vision test.
The program is unique because of the heart screening, where all student athletes receive an electrocardiogram (EKG), which traces the heart's electrical activity. A heart screening is performed to increase the chance of detecting a heart problem that could affect an athlete's ability to participate in sports safely.
Traditional sports screenings may not detect these heart abnormalities. However, no screening program is designed to detect every abnormal condition. It is also important to note that this program is not intended to replace an athlete's yearly well child exam.
The educational program provides information and intervention early when habits of healthy living can be set or modified and when young student-athletes are motivated to respond.
Students will need transportation to the event. Students will also receive heart screenings for sudden cardiac death, not offered at routine athletic physicals, to detect health risks before they become issues.
Heart of a Champion Day aims to:
- Identify high-risk disorders in student athletes
- Educate student athletes and their parents about injury prevention
- Provide at-risk student athletes with a treatment plan
- Ensure that previous injuries have been treated properly
- Discuss referral options recommended for further evaluation and provide resources to establish a primary care physician
Each student athlete receives a free:
- Review of medical history
- General sports screening for North and South Carolina
- Electrocardiogram (EKG)
- Echocardiogram (ECHO) if needed
- Orthopedic screening (musculoskeletal exam)
- Vision exam
- Access to a registered dietician
Heart of a Champion Day Overview
Learn more about our annual Heart of a Champion Day, a partnership between Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Sports Medicine and Atrium Health Levine Children's Brenner Children's. Held in three different cities, we most recently provided nearly 700 free, comprehensive sports physicals for student-athletes entering grades 9-12 at high schools who partner with our health system's Athletic Training Outreach Program.
17-year-old sophomore student-athlete Bailey participated in Heart of a Champion Day where she was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a serious heart condition that can cause dangerous, rapid heart rhythms. "Sometimes in class, I would just be sitting there and I would feel my heart start beating really fast, and it was scary because I didn’t know what was going on," Bailey recalls. After years of pushing through symptoms, a free EKG screening changed the course of her life. Not long after her diagnosis, she underwent a life-saving heart procedure. Bailey’s resilience shone through—she returned to basketball camp just days after her procedure and was soon back to her favorite sports, including basketball, volleyball, track and dance. "I feel this relief, like I'm not worried about it," Bailey said. "I don't feel that pain, and I don't feel just that tightness, and it's just been a really big relief." Her experience gave her an up-close look at the world of medicine, inspiring her to want to become a surgeon someday. |