From Orlando Sentinel

SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE

UCF players, coach differ over football player's death

Accounts of drills' intensity, Plancher's condition at odds

Ereck Plancher

One of Ereck Plancher Facebook profile photos. (PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM)


Kyle Hightower | Iliana Limon and Lynn Hoppes, Sentinel Staff Writers
April 11, 2008

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UCF football player Ereck Plancher showed signs of distress during an intense workout last month before he collapsed and later died, four of Plancher's teammates told the Orlando Sentinel.

Plancher, a 19-year-old receiver from Naples, was taken to a hospital March 18 and was pronounced dead about an hour after the workout, known as a "mat drill."

A preliminary autopsy was inconclusive. Further tests are under way to determine the cause of Plancher's death.

The UCF players, who asked for anonymity because they fear retribution from football coaches, said Plancher's final practice was more intense than the basic-conditioning workout described by UCF officials.

In an interview with the Sentinel, UCF coach George O'Leary and his football staff disputed the four players' account of Plancher's final practice.

"I did not see him struggle on the field," O'Leary said of the morning Plancher died. "From my professional opinion, what should have been done for his care was being done."

The players said they decided to talk to Sentinel reporters because they were upset about the school's portrayal of a "10-minute, 26-second" workout that included a "weights component" described by UCF Athletic Director Keith Tribble in a news conference the afternoon of Plancher's death. UCF Executive Associate Athletic Director David Chambers a week later clarified Tribble's statement, saying the workout lasted about 20 minutes. UCF spokesman Grant Heston said Thursday that officials were relaying what they thought was accurate information.

"We were acting on the best information we had available in the hours immediately after Ereck's death," Heston said. "Subsequently, we learned that the workout was lengthier than we originally believed."

Players said the March 18 workout included:

*Multiple agility work stations that lasted five minutes each.

*Two runs on a 200-yard obstacle course.

*Two timed sprints from sideline to sideline.

They said those drills, conducted in the Knights' indoor fieldhouse, came after players lifted weights for an hour, also a supervised activity.

"Everybody was struggling at times," one player said. ". . . But he [Ereck] was running, and I could tell something wasn't right. His eyes got real dark, and he was squinting like he was blinded by the sun. He was making this moaning noise, trying to breathe real hard."

The four players said Plancher fell during the final sprint and members of the UCF coaching staff yelled at him to finish the drill.

"Ereck took off running about 5 yards and fell; the coaches were yelling at him to get up, and of course he came in last," one player said.

O'Leary said he didn't see Plancher fall but did see him get up during one of the two runs.

Offensive coordinator Tim Salem said he saw no signs that Plancher was having problems during the workout.

"When he was coming through my station, he actually was passing people. He was not struggling at that time. He was working harder than other kids."

After the workout, the team huddled in the middle of the field, where O'Leary singled out Plancher and cursed at him for lack of effort during the final sprint, the four players said.

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