Gap in rules risks lives of athletes; Laws and athletic association rules don't match, so physical exams and life-saving equipment vary.(A SECTION)

Byline: CHRIS DAVIS, MATTHEW DOIG AND BOB MAHLBURG STAFF WRITERS

When Matthew Miulli's heart stopped during a preseason conditioning workout, he wasn't the first young athlete to die on Florida's athletic fields.

Over the past decade, at least 19 student athletes have died from injuries or heart failure. Eight have died in the last 16 months.

But state officials who oversee Florida's high school sports have done little to monitor how many students are injured or killed playing sports.

Those same officials don't require schools to have basic life-saving equipment and training. As a result, many schools aren't prepared to safeguard against sudden heart attacks and other life-threatening medical conditions.

The state Legislature has ceded virtually all oversight of high school athletics to the Florida High School Athletic Association, a nonprofit group. The FHSAA has been given authority to crown champions, issue guidelines for medical care of athletes and disband sports teams for breaking its rules.

FHSAA rules are so detailed that they even dictate the conduct of the public address announcer at games.

But FHSAA attorney Leonard Ireland insists that the FHSAA has nothing to do with athletic safety, despite the group's bylaws that say the FHSAA must "safeguard the physical, mental, and moral welfare of high school students."

It's not clear if anything would have saved Miulli when the Tampa baseball player collapsed during a preseason conditioning session in front of his Alonso High School coaches Jan. 19. Complications from congenital heart disease likely killed the 17-year-old athlete, according to a preliminary autopsy.

Even so, Miulli's death illustrates how safety measures have not kept pace with the increasing pressure on high school athletes to perform.

A Herald-Tribune survey of the state's 67 school districts found that most high schools' safety programs rely primarily on annual physicals -- the same safety measures schools used decades ago.

Nearly half of the state's high schools don't have defibrillators, which shock the heart back into normal rhythm. Even at schools that have the devices, most are kept…