UCF players: Ereck Plancher died following intense mat drills

[flsportsfan83]

Phil the bag boy is over on the UCF site claiming the OS made the story up. He claims that there were no 4 players that went to the OS. i wonder why the OS hates UCF so much.  :

[BullMedic]

Thanks Joe.  You're right.  Nobody can really mention anything until they know all details.  The drills are the same as any other school.  FSU got a lot of heat from the "mat drills" that the kid was doing who died there.  It is sad...and I'm sure there are legal procedures each school has to go through when something like this happens.

Yeah but these drills were prior to the NCAA's Period for workouts of this intensity. So now this lying bastard also has been caught for violating the NCAA's rules.

[Carolina_Bull]

He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing.

Why was O'Leary at a "voluntary" workout if he's not supposed to be there?

If this strory is true then O'Leary and every coach should be charged with second degree murder. 

This is why he was not so forthcoming.  Even though criminal charges in this case are ludicrous (civil liability is a completely different story), O'Leary definitely did some risk analysis immediately after Plancher fell and decided to keep his mouth shut.  Same goes for the suits at UCF.

We'll hear what O'leary has to say at a deposition in about two years.

Your whole "He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing." is quaint.  I use it with my three year old.  But you are dreaming if you think an adult who faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit (and 2nd deg. Murder charges in your mind )  is going to talk a lot until ordered to do so by a court.

Hazing is considered a criminal activity.  If the player's allegations are true, then it was hazing (a criminal activity) by the coach.  Why would these kids come forward to the people they claim are intimidating them?  They are coming forward though, which is why there needs to be an independent investigation.  Those actions claimed by these kids, if true, either partially or wholly influenced the circumstances in which this kid died, pre-existing heart condition or not.  If this happened at a fraternity house during an initiation ritual don't you think there would be criminal charges (manslaughter) against those that were in charge, let alone those cursing and taunting him?   

I agree with you twilly that there needs to be an independent investigation over this at UCF.  But just to look at malfeasance on the part of the athletic department as it applies to negligence - not whether a crime occurred.

Hazing at a fraternity house is different than overworking athletes because our current social norms allow for football to be "tough" and for coaches to be "mean" and for practice to be "hard".  And it is social norms that are the basis of our laws as a society.  Until these social norms change, you will need an extreme case to find criminal behavior with regard to overworking players at practice.

I'll put it another way.  If, in an attempt to merely humiliate and intimidate you, I snuck up on you for no good reason and blindsided you so hard that you dislocated your hip,  I would be guilty of assault and battery inflicting serious injury.  Yet when Warren Sapp punked that Packer player on an unecessary block a few years ago and screwed up his hip there was never a consideration of criminal charges being filed (there wasn't even a penalty) - that's because football is "violent" and "tough".  It doesn't matter that in both scenarios Warren and I were just being a couple of douchebags.

[nickd25]

Check out the link:  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3341341

Makes you wonder what these kids go through!

Just figured I'd post so we could discuss.

[smazza]

He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing.

Why was O'Leary at a "voluntary" workout if he's not supposed to be there?

If this strory is true then O'Leary and evey coach should be charged with second degree murder. 

good point

there must be accountability

[IncrediBULL]

Sounds like O'Leary cursed at him and blasted him when he was not practicing well (though he was obviously sick)...  Pretty sad, but about what someone might expect from him....

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Link at :    http://www.tampabay.com/sports/colleges/article453698.ece

UCF players:Teammatelooked badbefore dying

Published Friday, April 11, 2008 9:58 PM

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ORLANDO  Four teammates of a UCF football player who died last month say he showed signs of distress before collapsing after an intense workout, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

Ereck Plancher died March 18, about an hour after the team's "mat drills." A cause of death has not been determined.

The players requested anonymity because they feared retribution from coaches.

"Everybody was struggling at times," one said. "But (Ereck) was running, and I could tell something wasn't right. His eyes got real dark, and he was squinting like he was blinded by the sun. He was making this moaning noise, trying to breathe real hard."

The players said Plancher, a 19-year-old receiver from Naples, fell during one run.

"The coaches were yelling at him to get up, and of course, he came in last," one player said.

Knights coach George O'Leary disputed the players' account.

"I did not see him struggle," he said. "From my professional opinion, what should have been done for his care was being done."

The players said they came forward because they were upset about the school's portrayal of a "10 minute, 26 second" workout that included a "weights component."

That's how athletic director Keith Tribble described it a few hours after Plancher's death. Associate athletic director David Chambers clarified Tribble's statement a week later, saying the workout lasted about 20 minutes.

Players, though, said the mat drills included:

• Multiple agility work stations that lasted five minutes each.

• Two runs on a 200-yard obstacle course.

• Two timed sprints from sideline to sideline.

They said the drills, done at an indoor practice facility, came after players lifted weights for an hour.

The four say O'Leary singled out Plancher during a huddle and cursed at him for lack of effort during the final sprint. O'Leary denied cursing at Plancher but recalled telling people around him, "He's better than that."

[DawgPound]

He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing.

Why was O'Leary at a "voluntary" workout if he's not supposed to be there?

If this strory is true then O'Leary and every coach should be charged with second degree murder. 

This is why he was not so forthcoming.  Even though criminal charges in this case are ludicrous (civil liability is a completely different story), O'Leary definitely did some risk analysis immediately after Plancher fell and decided to keep his mouth shut.  Same goes for the suits at UCF.

We'll hear what O'leary has to say at a deposition in about two years.

Your whole "He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing." is quaint.  I use it with my three year old.  But you are dreaming if you think an adult who faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit (and 2nd deg. Murder charges in your mind )  is going to talk a lot until ordered to do so by a court.

Hazing is considered a criminal activity.  If the player's allegations are true, then it was hazing (a criminal activity) by the coach.  Why would these kids come forward to the people they claim are intimidating them?  They are coming forward though, which is why there needs to be an independent investigation.  Those actions claimed by these kids, if true, either partially or wholly influenced the circumstances in which this kid died, pre-existing heart condition or not.  If this happened at a fraternity house during an initiation ritual don't you think there would be criminal charges (manslaughter) against those that were in charge, let alone those cursing and taunting him?   

I agree with you twilly that there needs to be an independent investigation over this at UCF.  But just to look at malfeasance on the part of the athletic department as it applies to negligence - not whether a crime occurred.

Hazing at a fraternity house is different than overworking athletes because our current social norms allow for football to be "tough" and for coaches to be "mean" and for practice to be "hard".  And it is social norms that are the basis of our laws as a society.  Until these social norms change, you will need an extreme case to find criminal behavior with regard to overworking players at practice.

I'll put it another way.  If, in an attempt to merely humiliate and intimidate you, I snuck up on you for no good reason and blindsided you so hard that you dislocated your hip,  I would be guilty of assault and battery inflicting serious injury.  Yet when Warren Sapp punked that Packer player on an unecessary block a few years ago and screwed up his hip there was never a consideration of criminal charges being filed (there wasn't even a penalty) - that's because football is "violent" and "tough".  It doesn't matter that in both scenarios Warren and I were just being a couple of douchebags.

Why don't you redefine how football is played and coached?  That's the only real solution to your problem.  Coaches are taught to be like that.  You don't think Leavitt would be all over a player he thought was dogging it?  It's more than UCF's problem.  This is the sports in general with a problem.  I don't know of a sport that doesn't have a coach be like that.  It pushes players to push harder and break to new limits.

No one saw the player breaking instead coming.