Former McMinnville High football player Brent Cordie and his father filed suit Wednesday against then-coach Jeff Kearin and the McMinnville School District in connection with an August 2010 football camp marred by an outbreak of medical problems.
The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Circuit Court just before the two-year statute of limitations expired, alleges negligence and recklessness on the part of Kearin and the school district and claims damages totaling $100,000.
School Superintendent Maryalice Russell had no comment about the specifics of the suit.
?I don?t think there?s anything I can comment on at this time,? Russell said. ?Obviously it?s been filed in the court, so it would be a matter for attorneys to handle at this time.?
She said this is the only lawsuit she?s heard about stemming from problems at the 2010 camp.
Kearin, who resigned as Mac coach July 9 to accept a position as an assistant at Occidental College in Los Angeles, could not be reached for comment. Kearin, who has a law degree from Whittier School of Law, did not respond to a message left on his cell phone Thursday.
Salem lawyer Brady Mertz, who is representing Brent and Jim Cordie, had little to say when contacted by phone Thursday evening.
Mertz would not comment on any specifics, including why the suit was filed in Marion County. He also declined to address the timing, almost exactly two years after Mac High players went to the hospital with sore and swollen triceps and other symptoms.
McMinnville?s immersion football camp during Kearin?s first preseason as coach of the Grizzlies began Aug. 15, 2010. Three days later, seven players were admitted to the Willamette Valley Medical Center, and three more were admitted the following night.
Brent Cordie was one of three players diagnosed with compartment syndrome. All three underwent fasciotomies to relieve the pressure in their triceps and avoid permanent muscle damage.
Players began complaining about intense muscle pain following workouts targeting the triceps.
The lawsuit claims Kearin and his staff were reckless or negligent by having the players do the exercises ?in an enclosed environment, without proper ventilation and in very high temperatures and without proper hydration.? The suit claims it was foreseeable this could cause injury.
The lawsuit seeks medical expenses of approximately $30,000 and other damages not to exceed $70,000.
Brent Cordie left the football team soon after the pre-season camp and did not return. The other two players who underwent surgery, Daniel Nice and Cody Arreola, were back in uniform within days and played most of the season for the Grizzlies.
Nice graduated the following June. Arreola returned for his senior season in 2011 and graduated two months ago.
Of the 43 team members in the camp, three were clinically diagnosed with cases of tricep compartment syndrome requiring surgery, according to an Oregon Public Health report dated Sept. 2, 2010. Five other players displayed rhabdomyolysis with muscle pain and creatine kinase levels 100 times the upper limit of normal.
Fourteen others displayed? rhabdomyolysis with muscle pain and CK levels at least 10 times the upper limit of normal. Creatine kinase levels are checked in blood testing for markers of muscle injury.
Of the 22 team members diagnosed with triceps compartment syndrome or upper-arm rhabdomyolysis, 12 had to be hospitalized. But none of them progressed to kidney failure, according to the report.
The state report vindicated the players and coaching staff with respect to allegations of the use of steroids and other banned substances.
?All of the toxicology testing that came back was negative,? State Epidemiologist Katrina Hedberg said a year later, reviewing the report?s findings. ?There wasn?t any indication that these kids had taken anything other than protein supplements. The other testing came back negative.?
On Jan. 20, 2011, there was an outbreak of rhabdomyolysis among University of Iowa football players. The Iowa investigation concluded with participants professing themselves ?as certain as possible that the strenuous squat-lifting workout the players did on Jan. 20 caused rhabdomyolysis in the 13 who were hospitalized, as well as serious muscle injuries to players who did not develop advanced rhabdomyolysis symptoms.?
The Iowa report concluded the players ?were in no way responsible for their own injuries,? and went on to say, ?Rhabdomyolysis was not associated with use of prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, supplements or energy drinks.?
In reviewing at the Mac High situation a year later, Hedberg said it would have been intellectually satisfying for Oregon Public Health investigators to be able to pin the problem on something simple, such as players injecting themselves with something, but that proved not to be true.
?We did not find any indication of any of that, so it really was this very focused or intense exercise routine and then this particular one that was focused on the triceps that looks to be what caused it,? Hedberg said. ?We wanted to, if you will, rule out and see whether any of those other things might have played a role, and we just didn?t find it.
?In this case, there really isn?t any villain, if you will. It?s not that there was something to pinpoint, but rather it is more general: intense exercise focused on one muscle group with heat and some dehydration exacerbating it.?
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