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Freshman wide receiver Josh Roenicke rehydrates during practice. In light of the heat-related deaths of summer 2001, UCLA has players weigh in before and after practices.

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Long before the season-opening kickoff, college football players were working hard. The off-season is a time for teams to take advantage of that win-at-all-costs mentality inherent in many players. It is a time for those players to gain that extra bit of strength, speed or stamina that might be the difference between helping their teams win or lose games.

It is also the time of year when three young men died in 2001.

Devaughn Darling died last Feb. 26. The Florida State sophomore linebacker was 18.

Eraste Autin died last July 25. The Florida freshman fullback was 18.

Rashidi Wheeler died last Aug. 3. The Northwestern senior safety was 22.

The three heat-related deaths all occurred during or after voluntary off-season workouts, leaving the college football community stunned. It brought to light the fact that there is no real off-season.

At UCLA, people have taken notice of the situation, but it hasn’t exactly changed things. The coaching staff is confident in the abilities of its trainers, and the players are still going to push themselves.

“How many on the West Coast has that happened to? It’s the heat and humidity (they) are practicing in, so it never crosses my mind,” UCLA senior Rusty Williams said.

Williams is the epitome of a workout freak. In the off-season, he worked the graveyard shift – 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Then the defensive end began his football training at 6 a.m.

And he was not alone. According to Kim Sword, who as strength and conditioning coach conducted team workouts, about 90 percent of the team showed up to train in the off-season. Sixty percent of the players came often. Thirty or 40 players went every single day.

“Most of our players are intrinsically motivated,” Sword said. “They know that it’s a part of what needs to happen to get themselves ready for camp.”

“If we go to camp and it’s 90 degrees during a two-hour practice, it puts a player at risk (if he doesn’t work out),” he added.

Many see it as a necessary part of the game. For Williams, training in the off-season can also mean the difference between starting and riding the bench. After losing his starting job last season, he is committed to regaining his spot. Establishing himself as a team leader during the workouts can only help his cause.

“If you’re training with me, you better bet I’m going to bust your ass,” Williams said. “If you’re not training with me, you better be training somewhere.”

Veteran defensive backs Ricky Manning Jr. and Matt Ware went off to play minor league baseball. Meanwhile, Glenn Ohaeri, a freshman defensive back from San Bernardino, drove for over an hour in the summer heat to be with his new team in Westwood.

“There was no real pressure to go, but I needed to get out there to see firsthand how it is instead of just being thrown in the fire,” he said.

And for any players who might have been thinking about spending their summers as couch potatoes?

“I put pressure on them to come out,” Williams said. “If I’m out there, I want the other guys out there because I want to be able to depend on them when they put their hands in the dirt next to mine.”

Peer pressure is within the rules, but the NCAA requires that coaches make these off-season workouts voluntary. Only the strength and conditioning coach may conduct the weight-lifting and conditioning sessions. All other coaches may not watch. Coaches also cannot take attendance, punish nor reward players based on these workouts.

Two of UCLA’s opponents this year are currently under investigation for breaking those rules.

At Arizona, head coach John Mackovic reported himself for a possible NCAA violation when he admitted on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that he received progress reports for voluntary summer workouts from his strength coach.

At San Diego State, one former player told ESPN that workouts were mandatory, an offensive line coach conducted them, attendance was taken, and that absentees were punished with extra running.

UCLA head coach Bob Toledo and his players agreed that their summer workouts are absolutely voluntary.

“I don’t hold it against anybody (for not attending workouts) – never have, never will,” Toledo said. “It’s nice if they could all work out together for camaraderie, but I’m not going to take roll.”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” he continued. “All I know is when they get here, I hope they’re in good shape so they can perform.”

“Coaches can’t be a part of practice,” Ohaeri said. “Workouts were voluntary.”

In light of the three recent deaths during off-season workouts, the NCAA has re-examined its regulations.

For this summer, the NCAA adopted emergency legislation that allowed for incoming freshmen such as Ohaeri to participate in workouts conducted by strength and conditioning coaches and receive medical benefits for injuries they might suffer.

In August, the NCAA endorsed a model for out-of-season conditioning designed to minimize health and safety risks, reduce student-athlete time demands, and provide adequate preparation time for the regular season. As part of this model for preseason practice, conducting two-a-days on consecutive days would not be permitted.

The NCAA board of directors is set to vote on the measure in October, and it could go into effect as early as January 2003, according to NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro.

In June, an NCAA committee went as far as to recommend the prohibition of strength and conditioning coaches from conducting off-season workouts.

“If you don’t have a strength and conditioning coach there, you’re going to get athletes that might not do the right things, might not do them correctly or might not do anything at all,” Sword said.

“Then they show up for the double-day camp, and you put them at a huge risk,” he continued.

“That’s terrible,” said Ramogi Huma, who played linebacker for UCLA from 1995-1998 and is now chairman for the Collegiate Athletes Coalition, an organization that addresses welfare issues for student-athletes. “It would make things worse. They might be training in less safe conditions (without a strength and conditioning coach).”

In any case, Sword provides his team with plenty of fluids. Toledo gets on his players for not weighing in and weighing out after every practice to make sure they gain back the fluids they have lost.

And?

“We just don’t have the humidity here,” Sword said.

Peer pressure aside, off-season workouts – figuratively and literally – are not a matter of life and death at UCLA.

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