Coach Charged in Death of Football Player
Max Gilpin was 15 years old when he died in August, just three days after
passing out during a grueling football practice. How grueling? So grueling that
prosecutors are now charging Gilpin’s coach, David Jason Stinson, with reckless
homicide.
Prosecutors claim that Stinson acted irresponsibly by overworking his
players in sweltering weather with a 94-degree heat index. They say he should
have known that heat stroke was possible in such weather.
According to witnesses, Coach Stinson repeatedly yelled at the players and
told them they would have to run sprints up and down the field until one of
them quit the team. One witness told police it was “appalling” how
the coaches were treating the players; another witness said it was typical
tough love.
So why is the coach being charged? One witness says no water was offered to
the players; the log shows the team received three water breaks in a 30-minute
period shortly after taking the field but none after the sprinting began.
Gilpin was not the first player to collapse that day. Another student
collapsed around 6pm; he was taken to the shade and treated with water and ice
packs. Fifteen minutes later, Gilpin collapsed and was treated similarly; when
he did not respond well to treatment the paramedics were called. Both students
were taken to the hospital, where Gilpin died three days later.
I do think that high school athletics can be a bit rough, and clearly practice should have ended when the first player collapsed, but I don’t really
understand why this coach is being criminally charged. There have been other
football players who died from heat stroke during practice, most notably
Minnesotta Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer, who died in 2001.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research, there were six
heat-related deaths in high school and college athletics in 2008. More than 120
athletes have died since 1931. No coach has ever been criminally charged.
Obviously, nothing will bring Max Gilpin back. But hopefully his death will
make coaches think twice about their practice techniques in extreme heat. I
don’t think the threat of a murder charge can have any more power than that.
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football is football. shit happens. im sorry it had to be a kid hat hadnt played as much as he would have liked, but i was born and raised in texas. we have more days over a hundred degrees in august than not, and we learned to cope with it. we had plenty players and parents who didnt agree with what was going on on the field, but they didnt play long. their isnt one student forced to play football. if you cant take it WATCH! Good luck coach!
beenthr2adays and ihda—-you guys are sick—boys to men you say???—did you see your steeler buddy on the ground two sundays ago—anything for football huh—-oh yeah and now tell about between the lines its different–we leave it there—you and your competitions—-enjoy your super bowl—oh and remember—zona was 8-7 before the last game of the season—call the recession bowl–nothing super about it—but its FOOTBALL—have another beer idiots
ihda is right. We, as a country, are becoming too lazy. The training that I have gone through for football and my ancestors before me is extremely tough. What this coach did was merely test the will to win in his players. The coach should not be charged for doing the type of training that has been going on for a century. I went through 2 a days in florida in 110 degree heat index and friends around me passed out then got back up. What it taught us was we were willing to give anything to win. The weak quit and watched us play from the stands. And sometimes the consequences can be fatal such as in this case. Football raises boys to be men. Perhaps their training in football will lead them to have the willpower to win under any cost. I know thats exactly what our enemies are being taught in foreign nations.
This sounds terrible, but sometimes kids die in sports, with baseball being the worst. We had a 19 year old kid drop dead of a heart attack when I was in basic training, one day he posted the fastest time, the next day he was dead and it was absolutely no one’s fault.
HotHead Technologies Working with Schutt Sports to Develop ‘Smart’ Helmet
Schutt Sports, the world’s leading provider of football helmets and
faceguards, is taking safety to the next level through their association with
one of the most innovative sports technology companies in America.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ — HotHead Technologies, Inc., an
Atlanta-based enterprise committed to improving athletic safety through
research-based technology, today announced it is working closely with Schutt
Sports to develop a commercially viable heat-sensing helmet insert, which can
detect potential heat stroke in a player in real-time. News of their joint
development activities was officially announced at the American Football
Coaches Association Annual Convention hosted by the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090111/CLSU014 )
“From the moment we began researching a way to prevent non-fatal and fatal
injuries due to heatstroke, it has been our hope that the technology would
find mass distribution through a relationship like this,” said HotHead CEO Jay
Buckalew. “Placement of the Heat Observation Technology (H.O.T.)(TM) System in
Schutt helmets will have a significant impact on the lives of these athletes.”
Developers at HotHead have spent years perfecting a dime-sized sensor that
is expected to be implanted in the forehead pad of new and refurbished Schutt
football helmets beginning this fall. The sensor will track the temperature
trends of players on the field and send that data to a PDA (Personal Digital
Assistant) on the sidelines where it can be monitored in real-time. In the
event a player’s temperature rises above normal, an audible alert is set off
to warn a coach or certified athletic trainer that the player should be
evaluated and cooled down.
While concussions and head injuries remain the most highly publicized
injuries for football players, heat stroke and other heat-related problems are
a very real threat to athletes and can be even more serious than other
injuries.
“Yesterday’s helmets were designed to simply protect players from head
injuries,” said Schutt CEO Robert Erb. “Our association with HotHead Sports is
part of our long-range effort to build “smart” helmets which protect the
player as a whole. Thanks to the ground-breaking H.O.T.(TM) System, we hope to
help coaches and athletic trainers take the guesswork out of whether or not a
player is overheating.”
According to USA Football, more than 21 million Americans — from pee wee
to the NFL — will play football this year. Overheating, especially among
programs in the South, is an area of long-time concern for coaches, parents,
certified athletic trainers and administration. Until now, they have never
been able to accurately monitor the true temperature of an athlete on the
field.
About HotHead Sports
HotHead Sports, a division of HotHead Technologies, Inc., is an
Atlanta-based company offering a patent-pending and proprietary monitoring
solution termed the Heat Observation Technology (H.O.T.)(TM) system. The
system is designed as an aid in the prevention of heat-related illness in
athletes. Within the coming years, HotHead Technologies will target additional
segments that have a need for biosensor technologies such as public safety,
military, industrial, and other markets. “HotHead “, “HotHead Sports”, Heat
Observation Technology (H.O.T) and the HotHead Sports logo are trademarks of
HotHead Technologies, Inc..
HotHead is a registered trademark of HotHead Technologies, Inc.
About Schutt Sports
Schutt Sports is the world’s #1 maker of football helmets and faceguards
and is the first helmet maker to move its technology beyond traditional foam
padding. SKYDEX2(R) TPU Cushioning is available in the ION4D, AiR XP and DNA
Pro+ lines, absorbing as much as 55% more force from impact in game-like
conditions. Nearly 60% of the helmets and 80% of the faceguards around the
world, from the pros to the pee wees, are made by Schutt Sports. Schutt Sports
is also the Official Base Supplier to Major League Baseball(R). The USA
Olympic Softball Team has won three gold medals and one silver medal wearing
batter’s helmets from Schutt Sports.
SOURCE HotHead Technologies, Inc.
Don Yaeger for HotHead Technologies, Inc., +1-850-412-0300, don@team180.com
This is absolutely ridiculous. High school football coaches are what they what they are, because usually they are complete morons. I went to a school that had one of the worst high school coaching staffs in the state. It was a shame that so many other sports that we actually excelled in did not get as much attention. Grueling practices are one thing. Disregarding the safety and dignity of the players is another.
maybe it hasn’t stopped because no one has been held culpable for these actions. it’s about time someone be charged for ignoring some glaring warning signs. you can still win a game without killing your players.
When did we become such a country of cry babies? Are there no real parents to make men of our boys? How else will we continue as a country? Even the Army has to have physical education classes to find enough physically qualified men to enter the Army. Our enemies have no such problem.
Charge the coach with murder, he should get a medal.
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It hasn’t yet has it? 120 athletes have died. It should have stopped 119 people ago but it didnt. Maybe a murder conviction is just what they need to go a little easier on them. Maybe they’ll think twice about making them work so damn hard in the heat. For christs sake its just a game.