April 16th, 2008

On March 18, UCF Wide Receiver Ereck Plancher collapsed during practice. According to Orlando Sentinel Players told officials that workouts that day were more intense compared to the previous workouts. In the police report, players stated that the workout started indoors and ended up outside with agility exercise lasting up to five minutes, a 200 yard obstacle course and sideline-to-sideline sprints. Before Plancher was able to finish his second sideline-to-sideline sprint he collapsed. One player said, “Everybody was struggling at times but Ereck was running, and I could tell something wasn’t right. His eyes got real dark, and he was blinded by the sun. He was making this moaning noise trying to breathe really hard.” Ereck took of running about five yards and fell. The coaches were yelling at him to get up, and of course he came in last,” one player said, according to the Sentinel.



Four players told the newspaper that Coach O’Leary said to Plancher, “That’s a bunch of B****ht out of you son,” in the huddle. After the last exercise which was a final jumping-exercise and a final team huddle was when Plancher collapsed while walking away. According to Plancher’s teammates, they told officials that that this was not the fist time collapsing during practice. In the spring of 2007 he also collapsed during a UCF workout.



According to his peers, Ereck Plancher was a smart kid and always stayed healthy His father, Enock, said he had never heard of his son having health problems at UCF he never got sick or even had a cold.