Over three years after he passed away during an offseason workout, a jury has found UCF to be negligent in the death of Ereck Plancher and awarded his family $10 million.
Closing arguments in the 14-day trial of the civil suit brought against the university by Plancher’s parents concluded Thursday evening, with the six-person jury rendering their verdict five hours later. Plancher’s mother and father were each awarded $5 million in the verdict. The university -- or, more specifically, the University of Central Florida Athletics Association -- will also be responsible for the family’s legal fees, which are likely to total in excess of $1 million.
“If there’s one message that we have sent very loudly and clearly, the welfare of any student athlete is at the top of any football program,” Plancher family attorney Steve Yerrid said. “And that’s how to have a winning program.”
It’s expected UCF will appeal the ruling.
Plancher died in March of 2008 following offseason conditioning drills at the school. The plaintiffs had argued Plancher died of complications from sickle-cell trait and that UCF did not follow guidelines they had in place for protecting student-athletes, including testimony that head coach George O’Leary had drinking water and athletic trainers removed from the workout while also berating Plancher for his lack of effort shortly before he collapsed and died. The defense countered that, the Orlando Sentinel writes, Plancher died from an undiagnosed heart condition and could not have been saved regardless of when athletic trainers intervened.
While the jury found UCF negligent, they found no “clear and convincing evidence” of gross negligence and therefore did not award the parents any punitive damages.
“We believe the appeals court will side with us,” UCF spokesman Grant Heston said. “We feel that from pretrial rulings to ruling during the trial that there’s an ample of appeal opportunity and we strongly believe that this will be a quick process because it’s very clear that this was the wrong decision.”
Regardless of whether or not the appeal has been successful, the heat is already being turned up by the media on O’Leary as a result of some of the damning and damaging testimony that came out during the trial. It remains to be seen, however, if said heat will be limited to the media, or if the verdict will lead the university to question its commitment to a head coach who has turned the program around.
