The searing heat and humidity that cloak August training camps have abated -- for now. The high-school football season is well under way, and coaches are busy breaking down game film getting ready for Friday night's opponent.
After-school practices keep coaches occupied for long hours, and preparing for game night tends to obscure all but the most obvious events elsewhere.
For a number of area coaches, one such event is unfolding in a courtroom in Louisville, Ky., where prosecutors for the Commonwealth of Kentucky are trying a coach in a player's death. David Jason Stinson of Louisville Pleasure Ridge Park High School has been charged with reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in connection with the death of a 15-year-old offensive lineman who collapsed after practice Aug. 20, 2008. The teen died three days later.
Stinson is believed to be the first coach ever charged with a criminal offense in the death of a player related to an on-field incident -- a fact of considerable concern to men who work for long hours and little pay coaching football.
"Of course we're following that case," said Dave Diamont, the head coach at East Surry High School. "Anyone who is in charge of children is going to be held responsible if they make a mistake or if it appears that they've made a mistake."
Heart-breaking tragedy
Diamont has a unique perspective from which to monitor the trial. He coached at East from 1977 to '89, Mount Airy High from 1991 to '95 and returned to the sideline at East in 1999. He also served in the N.C. House of Representatives from 1974 to 1994 -- long enough to curry deep respect from his peers and constituents for his common-sense approach to lawmaking.
"From working in the legislature and serving with lawyers, I became very aware of how laws were made and how they're applied," Diamont said. "Anybody can sue anybody anytime."
When manslaughter laws are used in a situation which appears to be an accident -- the initial ruling applied to 15-year-old Max Gilpin's death by a coroner -- other coaches notice and can't help but wonder "What if?"
Stinson's trial opened last week with prosecutors saying that he put winning ahead of safety by running a brutal practice on a day when the temperature had reached 94 degrees. As coaches will do, Stinson grew frustrated with his team and ended training with a series of wind sprints.
Defense attorneys opened by citing medical records that indicate the player was not dehydrated when he collapsed. Though an autopsy was not performed, medical examiners nevertheless attributed his death to heat stroke, sepsis and organ failure.
"It just breaks your heart when bad stuff like that happens," Diamont said. "Naturally you go over everything you do to make sure you're doing all the right things."
What can be learned
Barbaric as it sounds today, Diamont grew up in an era when football coaches considered their players soft if they wanted water. Two-a-day practices during August training camps were the norm, not the exception.
"I remember the inside of my mouth feeling like the skin was going to peel off," Diamont said. "It was a way of proving your manhood. It doesn't make any sense now, but that's the way it was done."
These days, coaches walk a fine line between running a disciplined program and pushing players too far. Water is available at all times, and practice times are commonly moved to the morning or evenings when it is cooler outside.
Conditioning is part of football. Coaches often must make judgments about that one player who always seems to have an equipment problem or head to the bathroom when the running starts. It's not uncommon to make an entire team run when collective effort is judged to be lacking.
Both sides agree that's what Stinson was doing when he ordered his players to run sprints until "somebody quit the team." A jury will decide whether he went too far.
"We'll all keep an eye on it," Diamont said. "Not only us as coaches, but I'm sure the (North Carolina High School Athletic Association) and administrators will, too, to see what lessons we can learn from this tragedy."
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com
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