Player dies during routine drill at football practice

Do you think this is an appropriate exercise for high school kids? It's a drill that was designed for the Navy Seals

Teen dies after suffering injury at football practice | New York Post

A 16-year-old football player from Long Island died Thursday after a log being used in a conditioning drill during off-season practice fell on his head, police said.

Josh Mileto, an 11th-grader at Sachem High School in Farmingville, was taking part in the drill with a group of players who were carrying the log overhead when it “dropped and struck him,” Suffolk County cops said.

The Farmingville Fire Department rushed Mileto from the school on Granny Road to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Assistant Police Commissioner Justin Meyers said.

It was not immediately known if the players had been wearing pads during the drill that ended in tragedy at 8:40 a.m.

According to the athletic site hudl.com, Mileto was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 134 pounds. He played cornerback and wide receiver.

The Suffolk County’s homicide detectives are investigation the death, which is not considered suspicious, a police spokeswoman told The Post.

Sachem schools Superintendent Kenneth Graham said in a statement: “The district is devastated by this horrific accident and words cannot express the grief we feel as a school community. We extend our deepest condolences to the student’s family and friends during this terribly difficult time.”

He said the district activated its Crisis Intervention Team and support services, which “will be made available to students and staff for as long as needed as we mourn and try to cope with this loss.”

Athletic officials said conditioning workouts are common shortly before the start of official practice. High school football teams across New York will begin official practice on Monday.

“It’s a real tragic situation as a young individual has lost his life,” Tom Combs, executive director of Section XI, the governing body of Suffolk high school athletics, told Newsday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the Sachem district.”

“The district is devastated by this horrific accident and words cannot express the grief we feel as a school community,” Graham said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the student’s family and friends during this terribly difficult time.”

Routine drill?

I wouldn't consider that a routine football drill. JMO.

I agree not a routine drill, that's why I asked the question. The original article I had linked called it routine and I just copied it. Then changed the article to something easier to read.

Unnecessary is a good word for it. There are much better safer ways go achieve the same goal. Stupid is a another good word.

I guess I would have to see the log. Overhead carries of logs, heavy rafts, etc. are fairly common boot-camp style unit building exercises. I really don't have a problem with the concept if properly tailored to the kids. A giant heavy log is foolish.

It would seem that a random log is not an approved piece of equipment.

Navy Seal movies become mainstream all of a sudden we have teenagers doing Seal drills. There is NO place for this in HS football.

It would seem that a random log is not an approved piece of equipment.

Could happen just as easy carring one of those heavy sandbag blocking dummies we had back in the day.

Navy Seal movies become mainstream all of a sudden we have teenagers doing Seal drills. There is NO place for this in HS football.

Would you say that tire flips should out too?

Would you say that tire flips should out too?

Not apples to apples and again, no overzealous coach needs to be making 15-18 year old kids doing Seal drills. It's simply an argument you can't win.

You have to understand there's a selection process to even get into buds, before Seal candidates do buds drills. They don't let every squid give it a whirl.

Not apples to apples and again, no overzealous coach needs to be making 15-18 year old kids doing Seal drills. It's simply an argument you can't win.

 

You have to understand there's a selection process to even get into buds, before Seal candidates do buds drills. They don't let every squid give it a whirl.

They were carring a log as a group how is that being labeled as some type of special seal training. Maybe the log was to heavy for said group, but its not like they were doing underwater exercises here. We did stuff like this in 4th grade PE field days all the time. Like I said its no different then manhandling on of the sandbag blocking dummies we all used to use.

This was a freak accident and they happen all the time that someone gets severely hurt or dies. It is a damn shame that this young man is dead from this freak accident, but he isn't the first and won't be the last.

Yeah what can go wrong carrying a 12 foot utility pole over your head in 2017, the golden era in concussion protocol...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mom-teen-killed-football-practice-sue-school-district-article-1.3477362

The heartbroken mother of a Long Island high school football player fatally crushed during a preseason training drill plans to sue the school district for $7.5 million, records show.

Sayyida Ancharski-Mileto said in court papers that East Sachem High School was careless and negligent in the death of her son Josh Mileto, 16.

The player died Aug. 10 when a 10-foot, 400-pound section of a wooden utility pole fell on him during the preseason camp conducted by Sachem East coaches and organized by the Sachem East Touchdown Club, a booster organization.

Five boys were carrying the heavy pole above their heads, when it became unstable and dropped, crushing the young player’s neck.

Suffolk police classified the incident as an accident. Several veteran high school football coaches questioned the value of the drill.

Ancharski-Mileto filed the notice of claim Thursday, naming the booster club and the Sachem Central School District.

“This unsupervised and improperly conducted conditioning drill should never have been part of the training of these young boys," said Jay Dankner, a lawyer representing the Mileto family.

“There was no thought or consideration as to what could, and unfortunately did, happen if the boys lost control of the log or it was dropped for any reason.”