{"id":242595,"date":"2026-04-09T21:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242595\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T21:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:24:08","slug":"bexar-county-medical-examiners-office-releases-former-steven-hs-football-players-cause-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242595\/","title":{"rendered":"Bexar County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office releases former Steven HS football player\u2019s cause of death"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The Bexar County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office has released the cause of death for a 16-year-old Stevens High School football player<\/a>, who collapsed during a practice earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Jaren Lawson died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in February, the medical examiner\u2019s office told KSAT on Thursday. His manner of death was natural. <\/p>\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a genetic disorder that causes a heart to \u201cbecome thicker and stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

A thickened heart can lead to a blocked blood flow in the muscle and sudden death, the CDC said. <\/p>\n

A Northside Independent School District (NISD) spokesperson previously said that Lawson\u2019s health records indicated no known medical conditions. <\/p>\n

\u2018In and out of consciousness\u2019<\/p>\n

Lawson was assessed by athletic trainers since he could not hold himself up at the practice on Feb. 10, a San Antonio police report said. <\/p>\n

He was \u201cin and out of consciousness\u201d while talking with EMS officials. Records show Lawson was lethargic and sweating profusely, records show.<\/p>\n

Lawson was taken to a local hospital after he passed out. He was later pronounced dead shortly after midnight on Feb. 11, a NISD spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

In a Feb. 13 email, the district dismissed allegations that a Stevens High School coach allegedly made Lawson participate in a prolonged exercise after the teen said he wasn\u2019t feeling well. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur ongoing investigation has found ZERO evidence that these allegations are true,\u201d the district said. <\/p>\n

The district spokesperson also noted that its early findings did not indicate that Lawson informed coaching staff of \u201can inability to participate in practice.\u201d <\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the coaching staff reminded Lawson that he could opt out of the exercise. NISD also acknowledged that the coaches knew that Lawson had been ill the day before.<\/p>\n

District officials said it did not find evidence that Lawson was denied access to water during the practice.<\/p>\n

More coverage on this story on KSAT:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The Bexar County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office has released the cause of death for a 16-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,163,16868,82,84,83,66113],"class_list":{"0":"post-242595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-bexar-county","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-nisd","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news","14":"tag-stevens-high-school"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}