Orlando Sentinel: UCF player died following intense mat drills (UPDATED)

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Your coaches probably said water was for pussies, too.

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Joe, the guy who posts his Crossfit workouts on the Take Care of Yourself Thread, might know a little about that stuff (though hopefully no firsthand knowledge). I think compartment syndrome is something like rhabdo (I can't spell the full name of it). Muscle tissue gets broken down and passed through the kidneys, I think.

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

When I read stories like this it makes me think of John Gagliardi at St. John's in Minn., all-time winningest college coach who ridicules methods like this. Yeah, it's Division III, but I've thought his ways - no tackling in practice, no wind sprints, no tackling dummies, only running plays in practice - would actually work even better at higher levels because the players are better conditioned and more talented. There's a quote from him talking about how back in the 60s a lot of coaches refused to give players water in practice (I think this still goes on some places, but thankfully not nearly as much, I'd assume) and he said, "They give water to horses when they're thirsty, why the hell wouldn't you let your players drink?"

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Didn't O'Leery have a player speak out against brutal coaching tactics when he was at Georgia Tech or shortly after he was hired at Notre Dame? I think the player was from the Cleveland area and eventually quit the team.

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat dr

Dustin Vaitekunas.

http://espn.go.com/columns/wojnarowski_adrian/1294704.html

Add one from the SI Vault: Comeback Kid
Brandon Marshall expected that things would change at Central Florida after George O'Leary took over as coach in January 2004, but he wasn't prepared for how much. Marshall, a senior wideout, found out what was in store for the Golden Knights when he went to the weight room for the team's first scheduled workout under the new regime. Such sessions under O'Leary's predecessor, Mike Kruczek, had been casual affairs. So Marshall was shocked when he entered the room to the sound of retching and the smell of vomit. "All the windows were fogged up and puddles of sweat were all over the floor," he says. "I'd never seen anything like it."

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Maybe someone who covers college football (or DocTalk) can better answer this, but don't athletic programs put kids through any sort of medical check or physical before each season? Or shouldn't they? The contestants on "The Bigger Loser" work out at least six hours per day, but they wear armbands that monitor their heart rate. While they are clearly pushed hard, if there is a risk of injury or death, they sit. It would seem any D-I team should be able to pay for these physicals, or have a team doctor around to monitor these workouts so someone with medical authority can point out the difference between moaning because a player is out of shape, and moaning because a player is about to collapse. Of course, self-styled bad-asses like George Leary confuse vomiting and agony with getting in shape, which is not necessarily true.

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Obviously, this doesn't look good, given O'Leary's history. But intense, borderline brutal offseason workouts are pretty much par-for-the-course for big-time college football --- and have been going back to the days of Bear Bryant, if not before.

The school I cover had a kid fall out and get rushed to the hospital during an offseason workout this past January. Thankfully, he didn't die (for his sake, and to a much, much, much lesser extent, mine and my fellow beat writers), but his career's probably over.

One thing, though --- I didn't think the head coach was allowed to be present for "offseason workouts" other than the 15 pre-determined spring practice sessions. At the school I cover and most others I've been around, these workouts are supervised by the S&C coach.

Maybe that's just a conference-to-conference rule, but I'm pretty sure it's legislated across the board by the NCAA. Can anybody clarify this?

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

If the drills are part of spring practice he can be there.

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

In re-reading the story, the conditioning work was apparently tacked onto the end of practice. I've never heard of a "weights component" and "mat drills" at the end of practice, but I guess O'Leary has a different way of doing things.

I bet he never does it again ...

 

Re: Orlando Sentinel: UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills

Yep.

Cow kicked the lantern on this one.

 

UCF football player Plancher died following intense mat drills (UPDATED)

Another update in the Ereck Plancher story.
His father says he's concerned about a "cover up."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-plancher1208apr12,0,5719962.story

 

Enjoyed reading Austin Murphy's book on a season with Gagliardi and St. John's. The book has its weak points, but all in all, an excellent read. It's just amazing that Gagliardi has been able to do what he's done for nearly 60 years.