Sports are supposed to be fun. A time to work hard; a time to push yourself; a time to impress yourself, your friends, your family and fans of your team. It’s a time to make friends, to meet girls, to hopefully get a taste of glory. To make an impression on a scout so this passion can become a high paid professional job. It’s not supposed to lead to your death. Especially not in spring before the season’s games start.

That’s the way it should be. Sadly, it didn’t end happily for Ereck Plancher, University of Central Florida (UCF) freshman wide receiver. And so for the seventh time this decade, a day of conditioning, practice or drill work led to a student-athlete’s death. In fact, four college players from Florida have died from football-related deaths this decade. All of them were freshmen and all of them died in the off season. Off season drills are a time for the player to get in shape and improve his football skills. They are a time for the coaches to evaluate and motivate their players and choose their starting team. They are about discipline and getting ready for the season to come. They are not supposed to cost you your life.

At this time, all we know about what happened to Ereck Plancher is that he completed all the weightlifting and agility drills with the rest of the team. Along with the rest of the team he listened to Coach George O’Leary give last-minute instructions about the official start of spring practice today. Then, sometime after the team dispersed, Plancher went down on one knee and then he crumpled to the ground.

Due to NCAA off season guidelines that were passed in 2001, people supervising practice drills must be proficient in CPR and first aid techniques. In accordance with those guidelines, athletic trainers were on hand Tuesday at UCF and used a defibrillator to try and jump start Plancher’s heart before the paramedics arrived. But, he never got up again and never regained consciousness.

This unfortunate situation was reminiscent of what happened to University of South Florida (USF) freshman back Keeley Dorsey last year at this time. And, similar to what happened to University of Florida freshman Eraste Autin . And just like Florida State freshman Devaughn Darling before that. They were all freshmen, all at Florida Universities and all died during off season training. Maybe it’s that we are pushing these young athletes too hard. It could be the intense heat of Florida during that time of year. Maybe we need to reevaluate the techniques we use to train these young athletes. At this time we can only speculate. But there is no speculating when it comes to the fact that these student athletes are dying in March during off season and not in September.

Coaches need to remind themselves that it’s not just physical toughness that wins games; it’s mental toughness. It’s about teaching positive attitude, good habits, an understanding of the fundamentals of each position and of the overall strategy of the game. And it’s about executing each of these better than your opponent that wins games. Please don’t think that I’m criticizing any of the coaches because I’m not. It is, however, a coach’s responsibility to know how far he can push his athlete beyond the point the athlete would have pushed himself. And, because each athlete responds differently the coach and trainer must be acutely aware of every athlete’s physical, emotional and mental limitations.

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