# Football Players Nearly Drown During Training, Coach Told Lifeguard Not To Help



## winterinatl (Aug 1, 2019)

*Three high school football players nearly drown during training, players say coach wouldn't let lifeguard respond*





*High school football players in Fairbanks, Alaska accuse their coach of forcing players to do training exercises in a pool, aware those players didn't know how to swim. Three players needed CPR at the scene and spent the night in a hospital. / Source: MGN Image*
_By Aaron Walling_ | 
Posted: Thu 8:04 AM, Aug 01, 2019









a press release from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. 

At least one students sank to the bottom. Eyewitness 1 said he watched the lifeguard try to pull that student up, but at first, she couldn't.

“I started crying, because I just didn’t know what was going on. They pulled one kid out and his arms were just stiff. He was just stiff. He wasn’t moving. I just started bawling my eyes out because I genuinely thought he was dead. ...They pulled the last kid out, I thought he was dead because he was purple and he wasn’t moving at all. Everyone there was pretty much bawling their eyes out and either mad or just sad that this was going on," said Eyewitness 1.


According to another witness (Eyewitness 2), they trained for more than an hour and a half before Hessner told them to put on the sweaters.

According to a post on the West Valley High School website, this 3-day camp was listed as mandatory. On page 83 of the Alaska Schools Activities Association handbook, it states:



The coach or other personnel representing the school is prohibited from requiring any athlete to participate in an out-of-season sport, training program, or travel team as a condition of selection for the in-season team.


Eyewitness 2 said Hessner also told players the camp was mandatory if they wanted any time on the field in the upcoming season.

“He said, 'You have to be there if you want to play or earn your pads during this camp,'” said Eyewitness 2.

According to both witnesses, Hessner did not jump into the water.

“I saw him on the phone, but then after that he didn’t do anything. I didn’t see him help any, because pretty much every coach that was there was either going into the water grabbing a kid or they were outside the pool talking to kids calming them down and he just didn’t talk to any kids at all," said Eyewitness 1.

“The coach is just standing there. Three coaches and the lifeguard jumped in because they saw three kids still in there," said Eyewitness 2.

“If the coaches didn’t jump in, I really think that some kids would have died then, or if the lifeguard didn’t jump in first, kids would have died.” said Eyewitness 1.

The school suspended all preseason activities for the football team, but they will start the football season as regularly scheduled.

A new coaching staff was put together to start the season. A teacher in the area with experience coaching football and wrestling at the high school is serving as acting head coach.

_Copyright 2019 KTVF via Gray Television Group, Inc. All rights reserved._


----------



## winterinatl (Aug 1, 2019)

I am tired of reading about kids dying and nearly dying over unsafe training practices. This was unnecessary and seemingly against the rules. And how dare he tell the lifeguard not to help?!


----------



## Shula (Aug 2, 2019)

This is beyond sociopathic. On the phone while they are drowning and not even interacting with the kids and he's aware of what's happening?!? That should be jail time and if there isn't a specific law for it, make one up on the fly. That is traumatizing. Stupid sicko.


----------



## RUBY (Aug 2, 2019)

Why would you force kids who can swim into a swimming pool to train. And then tell the lifeguard not to help when they get in trouble. 
That coach should be banned for life from teaching.


----------



## shasha8685 (Aug 2, 2019)

The high school I graduated from was in the Fairbanks North Star Borough....West Valley was one of our rivals. I could see a coach there doing something dumb like this......


----------



## Gin&Tonic (Aug 2, 2019)

winterinatl said:


> I am tired of reading about kids dying and nearly dying over unsafe training practices. This was unnecessary and seemingly against the rules. And how dare he tell the lifeguard not to help?!



Part of being a lifeguard is knowing not to listen.  I was a lifeguard as I teen. I would have pretended not to hear the coach and did as I was trained.


----------



## HappilyLiberal (Aug 2, 2019)

That coach needs to be under the jail.  And, imma need these parents to teach their kids to say no when coaches (or anyone) asks them to do stuff like this.  Your life is not worth football!


----------



## winterinatl (Aug 3, 2019)

HappilyLiberal said:


> That coach needs to be under the jail.  And, imma need these parents to teach their kids to say no when coaches (or anyone) asks them to do stuff like this.  Your life is not worth football!


This. It is not worth it. These kids were kissed by God that day...


----------



## dancinstallion (Aug 3, 2019)

HappilyLiberal said:


> That coach needs to be under the jail.  And, imma need these parents to teach their kids to say no when coaches (or anyone) asks them to do stuff like this.  Your life is not worth football!



I tried to tell Ds this but he still listened to his gym teacher. The teacher had them running outside and it was cold those days. Ds told his teacher I said no. The teacher responded it is not below 50 degrees you will be alright. Ds still went.


----------



## Everything Zen (Aug 3, 2019)

HappilyLiberal said:


> That coach needs to be under the jail.  And, imma need these parents to teach their kids to say no when coaches (or anyone) asks them to do stuff like this.  Your life is not worth football!



That’s how these kids end up getting caught up in frat house hazing SMDH


----------



## nyeredzi (Aug 3, 2019)

dancinstallion said:


> I tried to tell Ds this but he still listened to his gym teacher. The teacher had them running outside and it was cold those days. Ds told his teacher I said no. The teacher responded it is not below 50 degrees you will be alright. Ds still went.


How old is DS? It is very hard to completely refuse an adult as a child.

Though at 50 degrees, he really will be alright, especially if running.


----------



## dancinstallion (Aug 3, 2019)

nyeredzi said:


> How old is DS? It is very hard to completely refuse an adult as a child.
> 
> Though at 50 degrees, he really will be alright, especially if running.



Ds was 12 or 13. It just happened this past school year. I didn't make a big fuss about.  but Ds said they were shivering while running and teeth clattering. That's why I said he shouldn't do it. It was too cold for him to warm up even though he was running. It happened two days in a row.


----------



## Tibbar (Aug 4, 2019)

Ok I know nothing about football training but I don't think I understand why they are using the pool???

Schools in our area have had really bad incidents during out of town (mandatory per school coaches but unsanctioned per local school athletics governing bodies--- but every school does it and they know, but don't unofficially "know") The incidents have included hazing, beatings and sexual abuse.


----------



## discodumpling (Aug 5, 2019)

As a football Mom to an almost 16yr old I'm not usually nervous about mandatory camps. But this has me shook. This is my sons 1st year at camp with his HS team. I dont even wanna find out what I would do if he is violated in anyway.


----------



## RoundEyedGirl504 (Aug 5, 2019)

There was an incident with Marshawn Lynch's football camp recently- something about football especially is a breeding ground for this type of balls to the wall crazy behavior. Signing DS up for tennis lol


----------

