It was so depressing =[ so many people love and miss him very much.
i know i do <3
RIP Ereck
you are truely missed. I feel so bad. I've known him since I was in the third grade. He graduated early last year in December, and started college at UCF early to get a head start on football. I really didn't talk to him since. I saw him during Christmas break for about 20 minutes. But... still... I don't know =[.... He was such a good kid.. and he didn't deserve this. He worked way too hard.... I don't even know how to deal with this because I never really knew anyone who died before. My grandfather died when I was about 2... but I do not remember. Alot of my class came from all over the state and all over the country for this weekend. I know all of us '07 Lely Trojans are hurting right now.There was about 2,000 people there. We all miss him and love him very much. They still do not even know why he died...... I don't understand why this had to happen to him...
RIP Ereck Plancher December 13, 1988- March 18, 2008
As news spread Tuesday of Ereck Plancher’s death, the people who knew him best knew right where to go.
They started showing up early in the afternoon. They came to the purple house on Martin Street with the coconut tree out front.
They cried. They remembered the former Lely High football standout.
"Everyone loved him," said Plancher’s aunt, Brunette Cheielus. "Everyone misses him."
Nowhere more than here.
Plancher died in Orlando, less than an hour after collapsing following an indoor workout at the University of Central Florida, where the 19-year-old was on a football scholarship.
UCF athletic director Keith Tribble said the players had been lifting weights, then ran for about 10 minutes. After the workout, the team huddled for a quick chat. As everyone was leaving, Plancher took a knee in obvious distress, Tribble said. UCF trainers on site immediately provided CPR and the redshirt freshman was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He was pronounced dead just before noon.
The Knights, who were scheduled to begin spring practice today, have canceled all practices until further notice, giving Plancher’s football family time to grieve.
But it was on Martin Street, inside the home where Plancher grew up dreaming of NFL stardom, that the impact hit the hardest.
The heart of the grieving could be found on the floor of the darkened living room, where Gisele Plancher rested on a blanket with a pair of pillows beneath her head.
Destine Duprat, Gisele’s mother, sat on a nearby chair with a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. Two boxes of Kleenex rested on the edge of a sofa.
"I love my son so much," Gisele Plancher wailed. "I love him."
Friends and family members arrived at the door every so often, joining a crowd of roughly 30 grievers who huddled in the kitchen and living room.
Cars lined the street.
"He was a role model for everybody," said Lely High junior Dennis Marcelin, a football player at Plancher’s alma mater. "He was hard-working and always positive. Never negative. I’ve never seen a kid like that in my entire life."
Plancher’s passing remained a mystery as the day turned to night. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of Plancher’s death.
"They did CPR on him for 35 minutes," Gisele Plancher said. "Then they could not help him anymore."
Tribble said Plancher had passed a physical. The practice was inside an air-conditioned building, but the weather outside wasn’t excessively hot. The National Weather Service said it topped out at about 78 degrees, with about 50 percent humidity.
High-temperature training has become an issue in college football after the 2001 deaths of Eraste Autin of Florida, Devaughn Darling of Florida State and Rashidi Wheeler of Northwestern. Also, in January 2007 South Florida running back Keeley Dorsey fatally collapsed while lifting weights at the school’s athletic facility. The autopsy pointed to an undiagnosed genetic heart disorder, but DNA tests couldn’t confirm it.
"There is no sign of anything that would lead us to think that something was inappropriate or improper," UCF police chief Richard Beary said. "It’s just a tragedy that happened to a fine young man."
It didn’t take long for the news to travel. It hit the hallways of Lely early Tuesday afternoon.
Don Alden, who teaches chemistry and physics at Lely and had Plancher in class, said one of his students came into class and delivered the news about 1:30 p.m. Plancher was friendly, popular and helpful to his lab partners.
"It was amazing how fast it shot across the room," Alden said. "That class was instantly mourning."
The news shot around the country as well, sprouting up on Web sites.
The headlines were about a football player. About a redshirt freshman wide receiver who died pouring more of his heart into the thing he loved the most.
Indeed, Plancher, the Offensive MVP for Lely as a senior, always opened eyes with his ability to cut and run and score touchdowns.
He started playing at age 4.
But even the men who coached him — the men who knew his talents better than anyone — didn’t identify the 5-foot-10, 181-pound Plancher as a football player.
They identified him as a Christian, a student, a family man and a role model. They appreciated the things he did off the field even more than the things he did on it.
"Ereck Plancher is one of the finest human beings who will ever walk the face of the earth," said former Lely coach Chris Metzger, who resigned last winter to take a coaching position in North Carolina. "He’s the real deal. You pray every day that your daughters will end up with a kid like that."
Plancher had nearly perfect attendance and was an honor student who earned nearly all A’s, recalled Joyce Shea, the chair of the English Department who taught Plancher when he was a junior. Shea said the thing she remembers most about Plancher were his impeccable manners.
"He was just a total gentleman," Shea said. "He was courteous. He was polite. He was soft-spoken. He was modest. He was a credit for his family. He was so mature for his age. When I had him he was 17 going on 25."
Steve Pricer, who replaced Metzger at Lely after 31 years as a Trojans assistant coach, said the last time he saw Plancher was about a month ago.
It was in church.
"This kid walked the walk," Pricer said. "I just wish more people would have gotten the chance to see it. But people will read about him. They’ll know there was a great kid on this earth at one time. He was so filled with the spirit in his heart."
Plancher hadn’t played at Lely since 2006, when as a senior he compiled 1,027 yards of total offense. He graduated early and enrolled at UCF the following January.
But when the Lely football players met for 45 minutes in the weight room Tuesday afternoon, Pricer said it was just as if the Trojans had lost a current teammate.
Plancher’s legacy is that strong.
"No one really knows how to act," Marcelin said of the mood back at Lely, a short drive from Plancher’s boyhood home.
Marcelin stood outside Tuesday as more cars pulled up. He saw Noelle Nuzzi, Plancher’s girlfriend, walk by wearing a black T-shirt with her boyfriend’s old number on it.
He pointed to the lifeless house full of people.
"I was talking to him in his room the other day," Marcelin said. "Right there."
Plancher was just here for spring break. He came home on Friday and stayed up all night playing ping-pong and video games with his friends in the youth center of his church, First Assembly Ministries. He attended Duprat’s birthday party on the fourth floor of the Best Western the following night.
Sunday evening, he and his mother packed his car. He hugged her neck. He drove away from Martin Street ready for spring practice to start.
"Goodbye, Mom," Gisele remembers her son saying. "I love you."
They started showing up early in the afternoon. They came to the purple house on Martin Street with the coconut tree out front.
They cried. They remembered the former Lely High football standout.
"Everyone loved him," said Plancher’s aunt, Brunette Cheielus. "Everyone misses him."
Nowhere more than here.
Plancher died in Orlando, less than an hour after collapsing following an indoor workout at the University of Central Florida, where the 19-year-old was on a football scholarship.
UCF athletic director Keith Tribble said the players had been lifting weights, then ran for about 10 minutes. After the workout, the team huddled for a quick chat. As everyone was leaving, Plancher took a knee in obvious distress, Tribble said. UCF trainers on site immediately provided CPR and the redshirt freshman was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He was pronounced dead just before noon.
The Knights, who were scheduled to begin spring practice today, have canceled all practices until further notice, giving Plancher’s football family time to grieve.
But it was on Martin Street, inside the home where Plancher grew up dreaming of NFL stardom, that the impact hit the hardest.
The heart of the grieving could be found on the floor of the darkened living room, where Gisele Plancher rested on a blanket with a pair of pillows beneath her head.
Destine Duprat, Gisele’s mother, sat on a nearby chair with a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. Two boxes of Kleenex rested on the edge of a sofa.
"I love my son so much," Gisele Plancher wailed. "I love him."
Friends and family members arrived at the door every so often, joining a crowd of roughly 30 grievers who huddled in the kitchen and living room.
Cars lined the street.
"He was a role model for everybody," said Lely High junior Dennis Marcelin, a football player at Plancher’s alma mater. "He was hard-working and always positive. Never negative. I’ve never seen a kid like that in my entire life."
Plancher’s passing remained a mystery as the day turned to night. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of Plancher’s death.
"They did CPR on him for 35 minutes," Gisele Plancher said. "Then they could not help him anymore."
Tribble said Plancher had passed a physical. The practice was inside an air-conditioned building, but the weather outside wasn’t excessively hot. The National Weather Service said it topped out at about 78 degrees, with about 50 percent humidity.
High-temperature training has become an issue in college football after the 2001 deaths of Eraste Autin of Florida, Devaughn Darling of Florida State and Rashidi Wheeler of Northwestern. Also, in January 2007 South Florida running back Keeley Dorsey fatally collapsed while lifting weights at the school’s athletic facility. The autopsy pointed to an undiagnosed genetic heart disorder, but DNA tests couldn’t confirm it.
"There is no sign of anything that would lead us to think that something was inappropriate or improper," UCF police chief Richard Beary said. "It’s just a tragedy that happened to a fine young man."
It didn’t take long for the news to travel. It hit the hallways of Lely early Tuesday afternoon.
Don Alden, who teaches chemistry and physics at Lely and had Plancher in class, said one of his students came into class and delivered the news about 1:30 p.m. Plancher was friendly, popular and helpful to his lab partners.
"It was amazing how fast it shot across the room," Alden said. "That class was instantly mourning."
The news shot around the country as well, sprouting up on Web sites.
The headlines were about a football player. About a redshirt freshman wide receiver who died pouring more of his heart into the thing he loved the most.
Indeed, Plancher, the Offensive MVP for Lely as a senior, always opened eyes with his ability to cut and run and score touchdowns.
He started playing at age 4.
But even the men who coached him — the men who knew his talents better than anyone — didn’t identify the 5-foot-10, 181-pound Plancher as a football player.
They identified him as a Christian, a student, a family man and a role model. They appreciated the things he did off the field even more than the things he did on it.
"Ereck Plancher is one of the finest human beings who will ever walk the face of the earth," said former Lely coach Chris Metzger, who resigned last winter to take a coaching position in North Carolina. "He’s the real deal. You pray every day that your daughters will end up with a kid like that."
Plancher had nearly perfect attendance and was an honor student who earned nearly all A’s, recalled Joyce Shea, the chair of the English Department who taught Plancher when he was a junior. Shea said the thing she remembers most about Plancher were his impeccable manners.
"He was just a total gentleman," Shea said. "He was courteous. He was polite. He was soft-spoken. He was modest. He was a credit for his family. He was so mature for his age. When I had him he was 17 going on 25."
Steve Pricer, who replaced Metzger at Lely after 31 years as a Trojans assistant coach, said the last time he saw Plancher was about a month ago.
It was in church.
"This kid walked the walk," Pricer said. "I just wish more people would have gotten the chance to see it. But people will read about him. They’ll know there was a great kid on this earth at one time. He was so filled with the spirit in his heart."
Plancher hadn’t played at Lely since 2006, when as a senior he compiled 1,027 yards of total offense. He graduated early and enrolled at UCF the following January.
But when the Lely football players met for 45 minutes in the weight room Tuesday afternoon, Pricer said it was just as if the Trojans had lost a current teammate.
Plancher’s legacy is that strong.
"No one really knows how to act," Marcelin said of the mood back at Lely, a short drive from Plancher’s boyhood home.
Marcelin stood outside Tuesday as more cars pulled up. He saw Noelle Nuzzi, Plancher’s girlfriend, walk by wearing a black T-shirt with her boyfriend’s old number on it.
He pointed to the lifeless house full of people.
"I was talking to him in his room the other day," Marcelin said. "Right there."
Plancher was just here for spring break. He came home on Friday and stayed up all night playing ping-pong and video games with his friends in the youth center of his church, First Assembly Ministries. He attended Duprat’s birthday party on the fourth floor of the Best Western the following night.
Sunday evening, he and his mother packed his car. He hugged her neck. He drove away from Martin Street ready for spring practice to start.
"Goodbye, Mom," Gisele remembers her son saying. "I love you."
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