BATON ROUGE - St. Michael the Archangel High School started its 16th annual Holiday Cup tournament Friday morning. The tournament hosts more than 40 teams each year, but what makes this tournament special is its potential ability to save a life.

In 2008, Lottie Cobb lost her son Jared Adcock to a rare heart disease called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. He was only 15 and was a soccer player at the school at the time.

"He was on vacation with his family. He woke up (and) was tired, ate breakfast, walked out and died instantly," Cobb said describing that day. 

ARVC is a rare hereditary heart disease. Instead of healing and getting stronger like other muscles, the heart muscle is replaced with weak fatty tissue, making the heart weaker and less able to pump blood. The rare heart disease was undetected at the time, which led to not only this tournament but also the awareness it brings for health screenings in young athletes. 

"We want to honor him and his family for what they went through, and again, at the same time, we want to tell schools and tell their athletes and the parents, especially the parents, that there are programs available that they can look into and get help with to avoid something tragic that Jared's family had to go through," tournament organizer Kevin Jones said. 

The tournament sees more than 40 teams each year playing to win. The Louisiana Pediatric Cardiology Foundation has a tent at the tournament to advocate for parents to bring their young athletes for free heart screenings.

Jason Englard knows firsthand how valuable the foundation's work is. The group helped his daughter when she had heart problems as a baby. She is now 19.

"Just being a part of the tournament, it's really special because it does hit home for us to help other people, to prevent tragedy from happening, or provide relief when needed," Englard said.

Jared's mom says she knows her son is looking down at the tournament and is happy.

"For this to go on, he is probably watching over it right now and knowing that soccer is still going on through this and what he died from is helping other kids," Cobb said. 

The school plans to continue its tradition next year. For more information on how you can get your athlete screened, you can go to their website.