Let me start our by saying that no matter what happens in the future with this case, THERE ARE NO WINNERS HERE AND THERE WILL BE NO WINNERS HERE. NOT WITH THIS STORY.
Parents who sent their son to play high school football have lost a son.
A coach who was trying to build up his team--broke it down--and lost a player in the worst way possible.
Both parties will live with unanswerable questions for the rest of their lives and nobody can settle those for them.
One of my larger pet peeves as a conditioning coach has always been when sport coaches use conditioning as punishment for their players. It's counter-productive from a conditioning standpoint and there has to be a better way to enhance mental toughness without losing players in this manner.
The coaches quote "telling them they would do 'gassers' until someone quit" was met with the ultimate law of unintended consequences here. A parent watching the practice from a nearby soccer field is reported to heard the coach say "numerous times that all he needed was one person to say that they quit the team and all of the suffering and running and heat would be all over."
Unfortunately, one of them did quit.
No water breaks and no athletic trainer on site to possibly head off this tragedy is going to leave both the school and the coach vulnerable from a legal standpoint.
Maybe it is time for this issue to move from that of a pet peeve to a crusade.
Part of the problem that there have been 39 similar deaths in the last 13 years according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.
Maybe three deaths per year has become an "acceptable loss" in the name of high school football. To me, one is unacceptable especially since the risks are well known, well-documented and well-reported and disseminated annually.
And yet some of the old-school mentality remains.
According to Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, "It goes with the profession that it's a unique sport and conditioning is a part of it." The ACFA membership includes professional, collegiate and high-school coaches.
Most of these deaths occur during the first few days if practice when players are just beginning to get acclimated to the heat and the unique conditioning needs of the sport. As I've said before, the risks are well-known.
Practices will always be a time where coaches are trying to build both physical and mental toughness of their teams in an intensely competitive environment, coaches are looking for these early season trials to translate into late victories during the season.
I understand the building of mental and physical toughness and all of that, but the death of young man should not be a part of the sport or the profession. That is a loss that no team or coach should ever be forced to try and overcome.
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FROM USA TODAY STORY:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/football/2009-01-26-coach-indicted_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
The sophomore's death certificate shows he died of septic shock, multiple organ failure and complications from heat stroke, three days after working out for two to three hours in temperatures that felt like 94 degrees. No autopsy was conducted.
Prosecutors have declined to say why they chose Stinson in what is believed to be an
unprecedented case of criminally charging a coach in a player's heat-related death. Witnesses have said in court filings that the coach was running his players hard, telling them they would do "gassers" — sprints up and down the field — until someone quit. One parent at a nearby soccer field said in an e-mail to the school that he didn't see the team get regular water breaks.
"This is not about football, this is not about coaches," Stengel said after the hearing. "This is about an adult person who was responsible for the health and welfare of a child."
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FROM LOCAL NEWS REPORTS:
http://www.wlky.com/cnn-news/18541445/detail.html
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A football coach has been charged with reckless homicide in the heat-related death of a high school athlete.
David Jason Stinson was indicted Thursday.
Max Gilpin, 15, died Aug. 23, 2008, three days after he collapsed at a
Pleasure Ridge Park High School football practice after coaches
allegedly refused to let players take water breaks.
Temperatures were in the 90s.Gilpin was rushed to a hospital where he died three
days later. The coroner's report shows Gilpin's body temperature was
107 degrees when he passed out."I don't feel it was proper at
all," said Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stingel. "They should've been
much more concerned and responded much quicker."
Stengel asked police to investigate wrongdoing in the teen's death.
"A reasonable person should have understood that this result could happen,
fails to perceive that and prevent the end result. That's the level of
proof we will have to go at," the prosecutor said. "I knew it could go
either way. I made no recommendation. We put it in front of the grand
jury -- told them what we saw as the facts and they made their decision."
Stengel said the coach asked to testify before the grand jury, but members refused to hear him.Stinson's attorney said his client maintains his innocence and looks forward to his day in court to clear his name.
"It is a tragedy, and it is unfortunate but I don't think the
indictment of coach Stinson doesn't necessarily resolve that issue,"
said Alex Dathorne, Stinson's attorney.Stinson is expected to appear at an arraignment Monday in Louisville.JCPS representative Lauren Roberts said Stinson has been notified of the indictment and has been reassigned immediately away from PRP to a district office pending the outcome of the case.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Gilpin's family said, "We intend to
closely monitor the prosecution and expect anyone responsible for Max's
death to be held accountable."
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