In previous years, Gwinnett Football League officials had considered making a heart ultrasound test mandatory for its players. Through a Suwanee-based company, it would have been a $58 charge.

The problem, league president Erik Richards said, was "how do we go in and mandate people to spend another $60 or $65 to get this done?"

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The death of Jahceem Xavier, a 13-year-old boy from the Snellville area, has changed that. After his very first practice in the league, Jahceem collapsed and died Monday from what officials believe was a heart attack. Richard said he'll go to the league's board to recommend mandating a heart test for the league's 6,000 players. He does not expect resistance.

"At this point, we want to take Jahceem Xavier's name and use it to bring to the forefront that these scans are out there and they're available," said Richards, who planned to take his daughter Payton in for an exam today before she leaves for a national boxing tournament.

As high school football practices in Georgia officially begin today, Jahceem's death has again provided a reminder of the potential danger involved in youth athletics.

According to a study from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, seven teenage football players suffered "indirect fatalities" — a death not caused directly by the game — in 2007.

Four were heart-related. A fifth was caused by heat stroke. (The Gwinnett County medical examiner's office said there was no indication that heat was a factor in Jahceem's death.)

UltraScan in Suwanee stands ready to provide the ultrasound tests, which use sound waves to create a moving picture of the heart.

President Mickey King said he offers the discounted exams — they can cost $1,000 or more — as a charity.

The program is called Heart Screens for Teens.

King said that "without a doubt" Jahceem's fatal condition — an enlarged heart — would have been detected with an echocardiogram.

A Children's Healthcare of Atlanta cardiologist urged caution over the screens, saying they can give athletes, parents and coaches a false sense of security if they pass the test.

Pete Fischbach also raised concerns about the possibility of both false positive and false negative results.

"If you had a crystal ball, could you have prevented this?" Fischbach asked. "The answer is maybe."

Fischbach recommended that the first step is a thorough examination with a primary care physician.

The chance for a doctor to take an oral history of the patient and his or her relatives can reveal problems an echocardiogram or electrocardiogram — an electrical record of the heart, also known as an EKG — might not.

That's why the physical the Georgia High School Association requires for the state's high school athletes includes a lengthy questionnaire about the medical history of the athlete and his or her family.

The GHSA does not require an echocardiogram or an EKG, for reasons of logistics and concerns about the tests giving a false sense of security, executive director Ralph Swearngin said.