By Eugene Egdorf, of Shrader & Associates
As lawyers for folks who have suffered sports-related injuries, we are acutely aware of the risks involved in playing football. However, many young athletes are not, and coaches who should know better sometimes make football even riskier by subjecting the kids in their care to poorly-planned training exercises even before the first game of the season.
These unfortunate truths sprang to mind as we read the complaint in Mileto v. Sachem Central School District and Sachem East Touchdown Club, Inc., a case filed on December 20, 2017 in Suffolk County, New York. The complaint’s key allegations:
Sachem C.S.D.’s football staff took part in a summer football camp owned by a Sachem C.S.D. football booster club;
On August 10, 2017, sixteen-year-old Joshua Angelo Mileto attended the camp;
On that day, Joshua was instructed to participate in a relay race in which he and other attendees carried a log over their heads;
The log—weighing several hundred pounds—struck Joshua when he fell during the race; and
Joshua died as a result.
It should go without saying that football players of all ages need to be physically fit. But it should also go without saying that coaches who train kids for physical fitness need to do it in a way that minimizes the risk of injury. The risks inherent in having kids carry a heavy log over their heads which could then fall and kill one of them—as the complaint alleges occurred—far outweigh any benefits the kids could derive from the exercise. Even the most basic weight-lifting program calls for a spotter to ensure that heavy objects (like barbells or logs) lifted by the athlete do not fall and cause injury. We expect that the coaches in this case will have to answer tough questions about the log-carrying exercise and whether they truly considered the risks it posed to the kids in their care.
Of course, this incident did not occur in a vacuum. Time and time again in football, we have seen player safety take a back seat to filling seats and earning profits, from the NFL on down to the college level. For instance, there was the notorious 2011 University of Iowa incident in which thirteen football players were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis after participating in an unusually strenuous training program. The University’s initial actions after that incident—including an involved strength and conditioning coach receiving an “assistant of the year” award less than three months later—left much to be desired from an athlete-safety standpoint. Sadly, we believe that the Mileto case may be just one example of how the safety-last ethos incubated at the NFL and college levels has trickled down to high school football.
Egdorf is a frequent contributor to Hackney Publications.
