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Tragedy Strikes Central Florida - Mar 19, 2008 | 13:58:05
posted by: Josh
Tragedy struck the Central Florida community yesterday, as football student-athlete Ereck Plancher died following an off-season conditioning workout. Nothing was out of the ordinary at the workout, which was held inside an air-conditioned facility. This isn't the first case of a student-athlete dying following a practice, workout or competition, and the NCAA and its member institutions must find a better way to protect the young men and women on its fields and courts. The question is, what can we do? Obviously, there isn't any possible way to prevent all tragedies - death is a part of life, and unfortunately, sometimes young people are taken from us way too soon. There may be practical ways, however, to prevent unnecessary deaths. Plancher had passed a physical earlier this year, but to my understanding, he wasn't subjected to an echocardiogram or more advanced heart testing. By no means is this a suggestion that Plancher's death could have been prevented, but perhaps more in-depth testing could have made a difference. It is the rare school that provides its students with echocardiograms. We recently discussed Tennessee and its program that may have saved the lives of two student-athletes. There's no question that those are amazing results. In part, this is a financial issue. If schools can't afford echocardiograms for all of their student-athletes, then it's difficult to figure out how they will be provided. On Monday, NCAA President Myles Brand weighed in on the issue during his weekly podcast, commenting that "you can't put a price on the life of a young student-athlete, but you always have the question in health care about how to allocate scarce resources." I don't know what the solution is, but I think it's necessary to have these conversations. These are the worst stories out there, and if there's any chance we can find a practical way to save more lives of student-athletes, we must do it - and soon. Should echocardiograms be mandated for student-athletes to compete in intercollegiate athletics? 
CommentsI don't think in anyway shape or form could this ever happen. The NCAA member schools would never be able as a whole to afford these tests on the thousands of athletes that are in the institutions. Yes, this is very tragic no doubt, but what if it could have been detected from this test but what if it was another test. The cycle could be limitless. Accidents will happen no matter what you do. I commented on this when you referenced someone collapsing during a marathon. There are just genetic issues out there that you will never solve. You cannot protect everyone from everything. Yes, unfortunately there is no way to completely prevent death amongst student athletes. Simply put, when it is your time, it's your time. Unfortunately, I knew someone who was a Division I football player that passed away earlier this year while playing pick up basketball at home in Arizona. It is very sad, and very tragic, but the truth is, that it is an unfortunate reality that we all live in. i think students who are going to play football or basketball or baseball should have an exam by a doctor. It???s very hard to lose a very good baseball or a basketball player or a star football player. i just can???t stand to see a very good player die like that. This is a very difficult situation which is practically impossible to prevent. Unfortunatley death will always happen and there is no definite way to prevent it in sports. I also believe that all universities should have this equipment but I understand that for some schools there is just no way that it can be done. There really is no way to prevent something like this from happening. The only thing that I can see working is giving the athletes monthly or weekly check-ups to see if everything is ok. There are so many things that could have caused this kid to die, and it says that the training session was nothing out of the ordinary. Post a Comment |
  
It means that two very good teams with very good coaches made it to the final game.
- Marie
   
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