Tragic death should prompt reforms

As we head into spring football, we do so with one less promising young student-athlete, who died unexpectedly at the end of a rigorous conditioning session.

On Tuesday, Central Florida redshirt freshman wide receiver Ereck Plancher collapsed after completing the final day of conditioning drills before spring football was to begin.

He never regained consciousness.

Offseason drills are supposed to get you in shape and improve your football skills. They are supposed to teach you about discipline and get you ready to play the game. They are not supposed to cost you your life.

However, for the seventh time this decade, a day of drill work has led to a student-athlete's death.

Nothing reported indicates something improper occurred at UCF. No one is suggesting that there was a lack of supervision or that immediate and adequate medical attention was not provided. According to initial reports, everything at practice went pretty much the same as it always does.

Sometimes bad things just happen.

Sometimes people die for no good reason at all.

But why does the sometime in college football almost always seem to be during some form of offseason conditioning? If football practice is supposed to simulate the actual intensity of a game, and the level of effort demanded in a mat drill is no different than that what is expected on the playing field; then why are kids dying in March and not in September? Unlike mountain climbing and auto racing, there is no reasonable expectation of death while playing football. So why are lives being lost preparing for the game?

Maybe these tragic deaths are not inevitable. Maybe it's time to start asking ourselves different questions. Are we demanding much more from these athletes than is required to safely play? Are we spending enough money on testing for pre-existing conditions that lead to deaths? Could either of these factors have contributed to the death of any of these student-athletes?

These are tough questions.

But they are not nearly as tough as what Enock and Gisele Plancher are going through this week as they prepare to bury their son.

Coaches must always remind themselves that toughness is the means to an end and not the end itself. Pushing a kid to the point of exhaustion and then pushing some more is a great way to test toughness. But it may have little to do with preparing for a football game. More is not always better.

It is a coach's responsibility to know how far he can push a kid beyond the point he would have pushed himself. However, because each athlete responds differently, we need to rethink offseason demands.

It is time for the NCAA to take control of all winter and summer offseason conditioning programs in college football – completely. It's time to quit calling these activities "voluntary workouts" and take responsibility as an organization for how they will be run.

We are not seeing these types of unexpected deaths during the regular season or spring football practice. Perhaps it's because we are getting our kids ready to play football, and not getting them ready for mortal combat. All seven college football players who have died this decade did so during offseason or preseason workouts.

I'm not talking about merely requiring a medical presence at these events.

Athletic trainers were on hand Tuesday at UCF and a defibrillator was used before the paramedics arrived. In fact, in 2001 the NCAA passed new guidelines governing offseason workouts that required those people supervising the drills to be proficient in CPR and first aid techniques.

Extreme conditioning drills and endurance activities that focus more on creating mental toughness than on developing proper football techniques should be eliminated. I am talking about putting away the wrestling mats and pulling out the blocking sleds. We need to slow down and teach the fundamentals of the game.

Secondly, requiring schools to provide testing for pre-existing conditions that could put athletes at a greater risk of injury or death during extreme physical exertion is a must. Although most non-contact deaths in football are a result of undiagnosed heart problems, there is no standardized testing for student-athletes. According to the American Heart Association, the most common cause of sudden death among all young athletes is an enlarged heart. The NFL, NBA and NHL all require heart screenings for their players. I see no reason why there isn't the same standard of care for college athletes.

Since 1966, there have been only seven years without any non-contact football deaths. The last year without such a death was 1999.

The death of Ereck Plancher tragically continues this streak.