I've talked with many coaches through the years about how they must keep players hydrated during the preseason practices when the weather is still very hot and the kids are in pads.
Luckily, we have had no serious incidents that I have heard of around here. That is a real credit to the coaches that make sure to give the kids enough breaks for water and Gatorade, and they don't work them too hard on days that are extremely hot.
Strangely enough I was watching a rerun of "Six Feet Under", a great series that was on HBO. It was the second episode from the second season, and it was about a player that died at a hot football practice.
Then today I find a brief on the Buffalo News about a coach in Kentucky that is being charged with reckless homicide after the death of a player.
There are players that end up in the hospital all over the country and we are lucky that we have such responsible coaches in the area.
A Kentucky high school football coach was charged with reckless homicide in the death of a player who collapsed during a sweltering practice in a rare criminal case against a coach in a heat death.
A grand jury indicted David Jason Stinson in the death of Pleasure Ridge Park offensive lineman Max Gilpin. Stinson, in his first year as head coach at the Louisville school, was directing practice Aug. 20 when the heat index reached 94 degrees and the 15-year-old sophomore collapsed and had trouble breathing.
The reckless homicide charge means grand jurors didn’t find that Stinson’s actions were intentional or malicious, said Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Stengel,but that “a reasonable man should have realized something like this could have occurred.”
