Skip Navigation
Heart of a Champion 2023 logo.

Heart of a Champion Day is an an annual free sports-specific health screening and educational program 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, from an Atrium Health Levine Children’s cardiologist.

Find Your Event Location

To attend HOC Day 2024, student-athletes must be enrolled at a participating school and register below.

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute

1237 Harding Place
Charlotte, NC 28204

Registration for Heart of a Champion Day for Mecklenburg County is now closed. Thank you for your interest.

Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute Orthopedics & Sports Medicine

6050 W. Highway 74
Indian Trail, NC 28079

Registration for Heart of a Champion Day for Union County is now closed. Thank you for your interest.

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.

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: A Personal Story

Heart of a Champion Day statistics showing the number of student athletes screened and medical issues found are impressive. But it’s the personal stories, of students who were able to continue their athletic careers after being treated for a condition discovered during the screenings, that are most poignant. Independence High football player Jaylen Riley and his mother, Nicole, tell the story of his Heart of a Champion Day experience in 2014.

Heart of a Champion Day Frequently Asked Questions

Close