A parent has sued the former coaching staff of a Texas high school football team, alleging her son and other team members were hospitalized following a grueling workout that included roughly 400 push-ups.
As reported by The Washington Post, which reviewed the lawsuit and an external investigation commissioned by the Rockwall Independent School District, the offseason training program devised by former Rockwall-Heath High School football head coach John Harrell demanded the entire team stop and perform 16 push-ups for any individual infraction during practice warm-ups and exercises. In a January 2023 workout, Harrell’s assistant coaches ordered the team to perform 398 push-ups over roughly 40 minutes after they had tallied up dozens of infractions that day, according to video footage reviewed by investigators.
Investigators discovered that students were taken to the hospital with symptoms of rhabdomyolysis in the days following the workout. Rhabdomyolysis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by overexertion in which muscles break down, and by-products released into the bloodstream can damage the kidneys.
Related: HS Coach Under Investigation After Multiple Athletes Suffer Rhabdomyolysis
According to Daniel Wu of the Post, investigators identified 26 students who presented symptoms of the illness, and a physician who reviewed students’ medical records found 12 met the criteria for a rhabdomyolysis diagnosis, the investigation states. Several of the students sought emergency care for their symptoms in the days after the workout, although the lawsuit does not say how many were hospitalized. The investigation stated that more students likely could have been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis but did not seek medical treatment.
Valencia Smith, the parent of one of the Rockwell-Heath players who allegedly developed rhabdomyolysis, sued Harrell and 12 other former and current assistant coaches in late December. According to the investigation, Harrell did not know about rhabdomyolysis when designing his workout plan, and had been instructed by his athletic director not to include punitive exercises for fear of injuries and legal repercussion.
Meredith Walker, an attorney for Harrell and an assistant coach, Alex Contreras, said the coaches are protected under Texas law, which does not hold school employees liable for acts within the scope of their duties, except in cases of excessive force in the discipline of students or negligence resulting in bodily harm.
“Mr. Harrell’s liability under the Texas Education Code is limited and Plaintiff has failed to take the steps necessary to maintain these claims,” Walker said, as reported by the Post.
Some team members defended Harrell, who was placed on administrative leave shortly after the workouts and resigned in March 2023, while players who spoke out about the injuries were bullied online and called “sissies” by another student, while their "manhood" was questioned by community members, according to the Rockwall investigation, which suggested that some players may not have sought medical attention due to such backlash.
“That concerned me,” said Michael Sawicki, an attorney for Smith, "because the kids trying to maintain the reputation of the program may have suffered injury.”
“If my job as a coach is to design a program, and I ignore the fact that if I make students do 400 push ups, they’re going to have rhabdomyolysis and potentially lifelong injuries … that’s kind of the minimum level of reasonableness you should employ,” Sawicki told the Post.
According to Wu, Harrell told investigators that he had discussed with his athletic director that his team had been beset by a high number of penalties during the previous season, his first as head coach, and that he wanted to develop an offseason program to improve the team’s discipline.
Harrell’s “Hawk Process” stressed attention to detail and declared any small missteps by players would require the team to do 16 push-ups — the number of games the players needed to win to become champions.
Harrell did not consult with a certified strength and conditioning coach while developing his plan, and had been reminded not to assign any “punitive and corporal” activities to his players by his athletic director in a 2021 notice, according to the investigation.
Across several workout sessions in January 2023, Harrell and his assistant coaches frequently called out infractions while their players warmed up and ordered push-ups, students told the investigators. The players were penalized for failing to clap on a whistle, having a foot over a starting line for exercises and performing exercises poorly, they said. The coaches also called for sets of push-ups to be restarted if any student wasn’t doing them correctly. In several sessions, the coaches ordered close to or over 100 push-ups, according to the investigation.
Toward the end of each session, most students were not completing the hundreds of push-ups asked of them and only did modified push-ups or held themselves in a plank position, according to the investigation.
Harrell stopped the workouts on Jan. 9, days after a group had been ordered to do around 400 push-ups, because some of his players began reporting swelling muscles and dark colored urine, according to the investigation.
On Jan. 9, a resident nurse also emailed school officials out of concern of the number of football players who were showing up to their emergency room with rhabdomyolysis, according to email records viewed by the Post. The email said the students risked kidney failure and urged the school to notify parents.
The investigation concluded that Harrell had engaged in misconduct by implementing his workout plan and failing to consult with Rockwall-Heath’s athletic trainers about the risks of the punitive push-ups. It said that Harrell was “open, honest, and transparent” once he learned of the injuries his players faced and spent time researching rhabdomyolysis and contacting parents to encourage them to seek medical care.
“I don’t think the coach is an evil person,” Sawicki said. “But I think you are responsible for creating a safe program.”
The investigation also suggested that Harrell was not the only coach who lacked knowledge about rhabdomyolysis, stating, “Unfortunately, this may be the norm across Texas high school football.”
