Brana Hardway: Post #6

PEOPLE Magazine p.99 9/7/09
"Did A Coach Push Too Hard?"
This article is about a high school football player, Max Gilpin who died from heatstroke during a very intense practice, most likely caused by dehydration. On this day the coach was not pleased with the players' performance and made them run an additional amount. The coach went to trial on the accusation of causing Max's death on the charge of "reckless homicide." The coach's defense is that Gilpin's use of Creatine and Adderall largely influenced the boy's untimely death. The community seems to have a divided opinion on the matter but a majority supports the coach. As this article was published on 9/7/09, the trail was not yet over.
I believe this issue relates to social control because it is a good example of informal control. We are subject to informal social control by agents such as our family, peers and educators as well as others in our social networks. This was a directional type of control because the control went one way, from the coach to the player, the coach clearly being the authority figure. Max Gilpin was under no legal obligation to continue through the extreme practice but did so because he was under the coach's control and pressure and perhaps complied because the consequence was a loss of game time. This issue is also seen as an instance of soft edge control because of the boy's willingness to submit to the coach's direct control, he did not attempt to defy the coach's orders. This is a good article to exemplify how informal social control can be just as intense, direct and severe as formal social control.