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Our View - Coaches should learn from tragedy
Issue date: 1/27/09 Section: Opinion
Five months ago, Pleasure Ridge High School offensive lineman Max Gilpin collapsed during practice on a Louisville, Ky. football field after running sprints during what the Associated Press called a "sweltering August practice."
Three days later Gilpin, who suffered from heat stroke, died from heat related complications.
On Monday, Gilpin's head coach David Jason Stinson pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless homicide.
Gilpin's death is just one of six deaths last year in high school and college athletics, but part of a bigger, more alarming trend in athletics of the past decade.
But Stinson, who was a first year head coach, may have been a product of his environment.
As Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney David Stengel said in the AP article, "This is about an adult person who was responsible for the health and welfare of a child," but do his actions really warrant the maximum five years in prison if convicted?
Maybe it's not the man, rather the institution that led to this problem. Coaches are expected to push their pupils to the furthest extent possible, but where is the training to prevent situations like these or determine when actions go to far?
Does this coach need to be reprimanded for his mistakes? Yes. Does he deserve to have his life ruined for this tragedy? Perhaps not.
All we can hope for is that coach Stinson and others can learn from this and other tragic situations so that we may better protect our youth in the future.
Three days later Gilpin, who suffered from heat stroke, died from heat related complications.
On Monday, Gilpin's head coach David Jason Stinson pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless homicide.
Gilpin's death is just one of six deaths last year in high school and college athletics, but part of a bigger, more alarming trend in athletics of the past decade.
But Stinson, who was a first year head coach, may have been a product of his environment.
As Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney David Stengel said in the AP article, "This is about an adult person who was responsible for the health and welfare of a child," but do his actions really warrant the maximum five years in prison if convicted?
Maybe it's not the man, rather the institution that led to this problem. Coaches are expected to push their pupils to the furthest extent possible, but where is the training to prevent situations like these or determine when actions go to far?
Does this coach need to be reprimanded for his mistakes? Yes. Does he deserve to have his life ruined for this tragedy? Perhaps not.
All we can hope for is that coach Stinson and others can learn from this and other tragic situations so that we may better protect our youth in the future.
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