Silence Follows Prep’s Death

The last hours in the lives of NFL all-pro Korey Stringer and high school junior bench warmer Travis Stowers are sadly similar.

Stringer collapsed on a brutally hot and humid Midwestern afternoon during football practice July 31. Stringer felt tingling in his limbs. He staggered off a football field, had his knees buckle and was shoved into a cold shower. Stringer had his body packed in ice. Emergency technicians rushed him to a hospital where his body temperature was recorded as 108 degrees. Slowly Stringer’s body organs shut down and he died early in the morning after the practice.

We know all this about Stringer.

We’ve heard little about Stowers.

Stowers, a 17-year-old soon-to-be junior at Clinton Central High here, collapsed after football practice on a brutally hot and humid Indiana afternoon July 31.

According to Dave Elliott, director of Emergency Medical Services for Clinton County, who responded when the Stowers call came in, Stowers’ knees got wobbly and he felt tingling in his hands. He was pushed into a cold shower and was there when the ambulance arrived. Stowers’ body was packed in ice and his body temperature was recorded as 108.

Stowers was first taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Frankfort, eight miles from the school. Then a helicopter took Stowers to bigger, better-equipped Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where Stowers’ organs shut down and he died at 4 a.m. Aug. 1.

Stowers was a 6-foot, 220-pound offensive lineman for the Bulldogs. He had two brothers, Jared, a freshman football player at Clinton Central, and Clayton, a seventh-grade football player. His father’s name is Alan, his mother’s name is Sherry.

No one wants to talk about Stowers. His father, who also played football at Clinton Central, said he preferred not to talk about his son. School superintendent Gary Gilbert said that Stowers was “a good young man.” Gary Finley, the minister at Kirklin Christian Church where Stowers’ funeral was held, said that the two words he would use in association with Stowers were “Christian” and “integrity.”

When an NFL player such as Stringer or a college football player such as Rashidi Wheeler dies after a football practice, the world knows within a day or so what happened.

The details of the final minutes of the life of Stringer and Wheeler have been well-documented. The details of the football lives of Stringer and Wheeler have been well-documented. A well-drawn portrait of the lives of each of these young men have been painted with the help of accounts from family, teammates, coaches and friends.

But in a small town in Indiana, a community has closed ranks. A father won’t talk. A coach refuses. A school principal won’t come out of his office.

Three sources close to the program say that the head coach, George Gilbert, a 14-year veteran at the school, withheld a scheduled water break on the day Stowers collapsed. These sources say that the coach was unhappy with the progress of the preseason workout and that this was not uncommon behavior by the coach.

Also, these three people say, the day after Stowers’ death, the coach called a meeting of the player’s parents and asked them not to speak to the media.

Elliott, the EMS technician, says that Stowers vomited up water in the ambulance. Whether that water was given during a water break or later, when Stowers became wobbly, Elliott couldn’t say.

He did say that coaches and school personnel seemed to have reacted quickly in calling emergency help.

On the day after the death, according to stories by the Associated Press and Indianapolis Star, Clinton Central athletic director Linda Barnett and school principal Ron Dunn said Stowers’ death was caused by a brain aneurysm.

A day later, Frances Kelly, the chief deputy coroner for Marion County, said an aneurysm was not the cause of death. Monday, Kelly said that she still is unsure where the reports of an aneurysm came from.

“I have no idea,” Kelly said.

All the toxicology reports have not been finished yet but Kelly said that so far Stowers’ brain and heart appeared normal and that, from what she has observed, the cause of Travis Stowers’ death will be heatstroke. She also said that the toxicology reports would show whether Stowers had used any sort of dietary supplements.

George Gilbert has his summer practice schedule detailed in 10-minute increments on a Web site so that none of his players has any questions about what is expected.

On July 31, the team began workouts with 15 minutes of stretching at 7:30 a.m. From 8:05-8:10 a.m. the first water break was scheduled. What followed was 20 minutes of offensive drills; 40 minutes of running veer plays; 50 minutes of running pass offense plays; 90 minutes of scheduled rest (fluids, fruits and vegetables); a 20-minute team meeting; 15 minutes of stretching; 35 minutes of individual defensive drills; 15 minutes of outside linebacker stunts; 15 minutes of something called “Skelly-Cover 3,”; 10 minutes of sprints (10x40s); a 15-minute water break from 1:30-1:45; 15 minutes of team defense; 20 minutes of showers (juniors clean locker room/sophomores clean field).

This is what a high school football team did, in pads and helmets, on a day when the temperatures were in the mid-90s.

Elliott said that he got the emergency call “around 2 p.m.” He also said that “it was an unbelievably hot day, in the 90s.”

When he arrived on the scene, Elliott said: “The boy was unconscious. He was in the shower. I was told he had told his coach that his hands were tingling. They put him on a golf cart. They had a certified trainer there and they took him to the locker room and put him in the shower.

“They put him on a chair and he slumped to the floor and stayed there. In heatstroke you look for symptoms and since the body can’t dissipate heat, they are hot and dry. But I couldn’t determine [heatstroke] right away because he was already wet. But he was very hot. We packed him in ice, medically, in the armpits, in the crotch and behind the knees.”

Last Friday, the Bulldogs were finishing a team lunch. It was on the schedule, after a morning of practice.

Boys were horsing around, doing rope tricks and sitting in the flatbeds of their trucks, eating hot dogs and drinking soft drinks. After the lunch, it was to be team picture day.

As the players were going into the gym to put on their uniforms for their pictures, George Gilbert told a reporter that he would speak only with the approval of the principal.

Principal Dunn sent a secretary to the front of his office to say that only school superintendent Gary Gilbert (no relation to the coach) would speak about Stowers’ death. Gary Gilbert said that the school would have nothing to say until a coroner’s report was issued and that he would not give permission for George Gilbert to speak.

When several messages and e-mails were left for George Gilbert, Gary Gilbert and Barnett about the reports of a lack of a water break July 31, none were returned.

Elliott said he was told, when he arrived at the school, that there had been water breaks and that Stowers got “the best of care. Methodist Hospital is a world-class medical center. It’s where all the Indy car racers are taken.”

On Saturday night Clinton Central had its first preseason scrimmage against Northwestern High from the next county over.

About 500 people attended. No mention was made of the death, 10 days earlier, of Travis Stowers.

Freshman Jared Stowers, 5-9 and 190 pounds, wore No. 76, the number Travis wore last year. Max Stowers, Jared and Travis’s grandfather, accepted condolences from some fans and says he is at the game because, “I still have one to root for.”

Mack points to Jared. Max tells the fan: “I was hoping that when Travis was a senior, he and Jared and Clayton would all play together.”

In the stands where the Clinton Central parents sit, there is more talk of a serious truck collision on U.S. 421 and of the Indiana state fair in Indianapolis than there is of Travis. There are no black bands worn on the uniforms in honor of Travis.

But there is an area between the football field and the school where parents mostly are stopping and standing. It is a new memorial garden with flowers, shrubs and stones dedicated to the memory of deceased Clinton Central teachers and students involved in school sports.

There is a Bulldog mascot with a carving. “In memory of those who no longer walk these grounds but whose spirit lingers still.”

Standing in the garden is Tom Archibald. Tom’s son, A.J., died three years ago at age 15 in an accident unrelated to football. There are memorial stones for A.J. Archibald, two teachers and Travis Stowers.

Archibald says he understands why the Stowers family is reluctant to talk. “When A.J. died, I had Indianapolis TV stations calling early the next morning.

“I asked my other son--he’s a junior at Purdue and he played here--what he thought had happened. Now George [Gilbert], he can be a tough guy but my son said, “It just happened.”

Archibald smiled when he was asked about the detailed practice schedule on the Web, the one with water breaks listed. “Well,” Archibald said, “they might not always follow that.”

Jim Russell, information director for the Indiana High School Athletic Association, said that he is waiting for the coroner’s report.

“Until then,” Russell said, “we’re really talking about something we just don’t know enough about.”

Russell also said that the IHSAA would probably not play a role in investigating the death or its cause nor would it encourage school personnel to come forward publicly.

“That’s for the school board and their legal counsel to decide,” Russell said.

“These people do not work for us. We do send them out seven pages of advisories [including advice on having sufficient water breaks] before the season starts. You’d like to think that every team followed them, but . . .”