Fourteen-year-old Colin Hill passed his required sports physical just 81 days before he collapsed in the locker room after cross country practice at McCluer High School in Ferguson. He never woke up. His father, Chris Hill, has spent the months since trying to make sure no other family in the St. Louis area has to learn what he learned: that a routine physical can clear a teenager whose heart is quietly failing him.
Colin collapsed on October 28, 2025, according to FOX 2, which reported that Chris Hill was told Colin's autopsy showed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick and stiff. KMOV First Alert 4 reporting and public memorial records establish that Colin was a freshman on the McCluer cross country team and that his heart condition went undetected during the sports physical he was required to complete before the season.
A Foundation Born From Grief
Within months of burying his son, Chris Hill launched Colin's Heart Foundation, according to the same FOX 2 report, with the goal of making heart screenings more accessible to families across the St. Louis region and beyond. Hill has said he initially believed building the kind of screening partnerships he envisioned would take five years, but community support pushed the timeline forward dramatically, per a post from the foundation. That momentum was detailed further by the St. Louis American, which covered the origin and rapid growth of Hill's advocacy campaign in July.
The foundation is now offering free heart checks to teens, and Hill is sharing a warning with fellow parents: a passed physical is not the same as a healthy heart. He hopes to change heart-screening requirements in Missouri altogether, pushing for what he calls Colin's Law, which would require heart screenings as part of annual sports physical examinations statewide.
Free Screenings Return to McCluer in October
The centerpiece of that effort is a free youth heart screening event scheduled for October 24 at McCluer High School, the same building where Colin collapsed. The event is co-organized by Colin's Heart Foundation alongside the Strive for Life Foundation, the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation, Ella's Umbrella, and MyHeartCheck.org, which will let families schedule comprehensive non-invasive youth heart screenings. Attendees can expect EKG screenings, echocardiogram screenings, and blood pressure checks, along with cardiologist reviews of the results, while the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation will provide hands-on CPR and AED training.
The Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation was founded in St. Louis in 2013 by Jenn and Mark Hinkle after they lost their infant son to a congenital heart defect, and has since expanded to fund pediatric cardiac technology, family financial aid, and mental health programs across Missouri, including a therapy program called Ollie's Branch for families affected by pediatric heart disease. The Strive for Life Foundation, which is funding the McCluer event, has helped screen more than 19,000 youth since its own founding in 2013 by partnering with MyHeartCheck to provide mobile 12-lead EKGs and echocardiograms reviewed by pediatric cardiologists, according to the Strive for Life Foundation. That model subsidizes hospital-level testing that normally runs $800 to $2,000 down to $149, or free for high-need families.
Why Standard Physicals Miss So Much
The gap Hill is trying to close is a documented one. The Missouri State High School Activities Association requires student-athletes to complete a pre-participation physical evaluation built around a 14-point medical history review, but it does not require an EKG or echocardiogram unless an examining clinician flags something abnormal first. Those forms ask whether a student experiences chest pain or lightheadedness during exercise, but they stop well short of ordering diagnostic imaging.
Research suggests that gap matters. A prospective study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that EKGs correctly detected conditions linked to sudden cardiac death 87.5% of the time in high school athletes, compared with just 18.8% sensitivity for the standard 14-point history and physical exam. Standard questionnaires lean heavily on self-reported family history or subtle symptoms that teenagers often fail to recognize or mention at all.
The stakes behind those numbers are national in scope. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects roughly 1 in 500 people in the United States and is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death among young competitive athletes, according to the American Heart Association, which notes that many people with the condition remain completely asymptomatic until intense physical exertion triggers a cardiac event. More broadly, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data cited by HealthyChildren.org show that around 2,000 seemingly healthy people under 25 die every year in the United States from sudden cardiac arrest, which can strike during exercise or at rest with no prior warning signs.
Florida's Law as a Model
Hill has publicly pointed to Florida as proof that mandatory testing is achievable. In 2025, Florida enacted the Second Chance Act, becoming the first state in the nation to require high school student-athletes to undergo an EKG screening, with the mandate taking effect for the 2026–2027 school year. That law was named for Chance Gainer, an 18-year-old high school football player who died from an undiagnosed heart defect in September 2024. Hill has cited Florida's law directly when describing his push for Colin's Law in Missouri.
For now, the October 24 event at McCluer High School represents what Hill can build without a change in state policy: a single day where any local teen can get the kind of full-spectrum cardiac check that a routine sports physical was never designed to provide. Whether Missouri lawmakers eventually adopt anything like Colin's Law remains unresolved, but the screenings Hill has organized are already reaching families who might otherwise assume a cleared physical means a healthy heart.
