COACH DAVID STINSON AND HIS PLAYER 15-YR.OLD MAX GILPIN
As I said when this story first came out, there are no winners. But I am glad that absent any finding of true recklessness on the part of the coaching staff the jury came in with a just verdict.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/17/kentucky.coach.trial/index.html
A jury Thursday acquitted a former Louisville, Kentucky, high school football coach of all charges connected to the heat-related death of a player last year.
The jury found former Pleasure Ridge Park football coach David Jason Stinson not guilty of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin, who collapsed during a practice on August 20, 2008. The teenager died three days later.
Gilpin's body temperature reached 107 degrees, officials say.
Stinson also was acquitted on a charge of wanton endangerment.
It is clear that this has had a devastating effect on the family as well as the coach, who clearly lost a member of his extended "family" by losing a player.
Days after he was charged, Stinson told supporters that his "heart is broken." "Part of my life has been taken away," he said, according to WHAS. "I no longer teach, and I no longer coach at the school that I love. ...
"The one thing people keep forgetting in this is that I lost one of my boys that day," he said. "It was a boy that I loved and a boy that I cared for and a boy that meant the world to me. That's the thing that people forget. And that's a burden I will carry with me for the rest of my life."
The local news actually adds more detail than the national story from CNN. While I personally do not care for the practice of using conditioning drills as punitive measures by coaches, it seems like the team was allowing for kids to bow opt out and get water if necessary.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x912513692/Ky-coach-acquitted-in-player-death
The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes, and Stinson hugged defense attorney Brian Butler after the verdict was read.
“That’s why they came back quickly, because he was innocent,” said Butler, who characterized the prosecution as a “witch hunt.” Stinson left without speaking to reporters.
Players said he ordered the gassers as punishment for the lack of effort they showed at practice on a day where the temperature and heat index were both 94 degrees.
Prosecutors relied on a series of Gilpin’s teammates who testified that several teens became ill during the gassers, vomiting or bowing out of the running with ailments.
Several medical and athletic training experts also testified for the prosecution, saying Gilpin suffered from exertional heat stroke, which led to his death. One witness, University of Connecticut associate professor Douglas Casa, said Gilpin could have been saved if he’d been immersed in ice water almost immediately after collapsing on the field.
Hurlbert said he hopes the case prompts coaches to pay closer attention to their players.
Stinson’s defense attorneys relied on Pleasure Ridge Park players who testified that, while they ran sprints, there were only a few more than normal. Three of Gilpin’s classmates, along with his stepmother, testified that Gilpin complained of not feeling well throughout the day he collapsed.
This is one of the great difficulties for a coach to deal with is you don't know what the kids are doing on their own time to make the team. Sometimes these details are disclosed on the initial physical evaluation forms, many times they are not.
Some schools have athletic trainers on staff, but not always on the field at all times, others do not for budgetary reasons.
There is a need for better education to filter down to the coaching staffs as far as when and where and how you can ride these kids hard physically, but the bottom line from a philosophical standpoint should always be:
YOU ARE CONDITIONING KIDS TO BUILD THEM UP, NOT TO TEAR THEM DOWN.
Defense medical experts told jurors that it appeared a combination of heat, the use of the dietary supplement creatine and attention deficit disorder drug Adderall, and being ill were the main factors that contributed to Gilpin’s death, which they called an accident.
The medical experts also said little could have been done to save Gilpin because his temperature was so high for so long before he made it to the hospital and began cooling down.
This would be the ultimate end result--you would see less people willing to participate as coaches due to the potential liability and less qualified people to boot. The ripple effect would have been felt throughout all sports.
Jimmie Reed, executive director of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association, said he followed the trial daily and expected most of the coaches in the state were doing the same. He said a conviction would have had lasting ramifications for all teams.
“Any type of coaching where you’re dealing with student-athletes, where there’s some type of tragic accident, then it would have been scrutinized to the liability of the coach no matter what the sport was,” he said.
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