Coach is on trial in death of player

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 05, 2009

Michelle Crockett dabbed her eyes. Her voice cracked with emotion. A year after her son Max Gilpin, 15, died from complications of heat stroke suffered at football practice, it's still a struggle to recall the way her son looked when she arrived at Pleasure Ridge Park High on that muggy August evening.

Crockett testified yesterday in the trial of David Jason Stinson, the former Pleasure Ridge Park High School coach, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the death of Gilpin. Gilpin, a sophomore, collapsed while running in 94-degree heat in August 2008 and died three days later.

Stinson's trial is a rare case of a coach being charged in the on-field death of a player.

Crockett recalled rushing to practice and seeing her oldest son sitting on a four-wheeler being propped up by two adults. There were ice packs on his neck. His eyes were half-closed and bloodshot. He couldn't speak.

Stinson stood at a distance and watched as emergency crews arrived to take Gilpin and another player to a local hospital. Only in the emergency room after practice did Stinson approach Crockett.

There, he admitted running the players in the 94-degree heat as punishment for loafing during practice. "He said, "I ran'em. I ran'em hard,' " Crockett testified.

During the first day of testimony, Crockett told the jury that her son, an offensive lineman, had wanted to quit at times during his freshman year but grew enthusiastic after a growth spurt. He bulked up 220 pounds by the next year.

"I saw him become proud of his size ... the summer before he died he started to come out of his shell," Crockett testified.

Crockett sobbed quietly as prosecutors showed witnesses pictures of Gilpin with friends and family. A guitar player who worked on cars with his father and grandfather when he wasn't on the field, Gilpin was running "gassers" -- a series of wind sprints -- when he fell.

Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Leland Hulbert said in opening statements Thursday that Stinson ran a brutal practice the day Gilpin collapsed, denying players water and putting winning ahead of safety. Yet one prosecution witness said signs of heat stroke are often undetectable for even the most trained eye, and that coaches are not properly educated on detecting heat-related illnesses.

Tom Steltenkamp, a certified athletics trainer who gave a symposium on heat-related illnesses to high school coaches -- including Stinson -- in June 2008, testified that heat stroke and exhaustion symptoms aren't always readily apparent. But he said he only spent 10 minutes talking specifically about heat stroke.

"I do not think they are trained enough," Steltenkamp said during cross examination by defense attorney Brian Butler. Steltenkamp said it was a coach's responsibility to monitor how players are managing themselves during practices, particularly in the heat. He said having two players hospitalized after a practice is a "possibility," but is not common.

Butler said Stinson ran a tough practice but wasn't responsible for the heat stroke that felled Gilpin and never denied him water. Butler called the prosecution a "witch hunt."

Prosecution witness Julian Tackett, an assistant commissioner with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, testified that coaches can administer water breaks "at their discretion" when the heat index is under 95 degrees. The heat index was 94 degrees the day Gilpin collapsed according to Stinson's practice notes.