Late Wrestler Had Fainting Spells

Scott Miller arrived at the Tri-State high school wrestling tournament Friday afternoon - as he has every year since 1977 - but his heart was still in North Carolina.

Miller is the head coach at Campbell University, where the first of three college wrestlers died in early November while cutting weight for a season-opening tournament.

Billy Jack Saylor, 19, a freshman from Wellborn, Fla., collapsed during an early morning workout on Nov. 7 when he was trying to lose 6 pounds to be eligible for his first match. Saylor collapsed at 4:10 a.m. after riding an exercise bike and died of a heart attack.

“He died while trying to cut weight, but what we’ve found out since his death is he had fainting spells in high school,” said Miller, 34, in his eighth year as head coach and a three-time state qualifier at CdA. Campbell, one of the nation’s smallest NCAA Division I schools, is a Southern Baptist affiliated university located in the middle of the state about 30 miles south of Raleigh.

Saylor was purposely dehydrating himself - commonly referred to as cutting weight or fasting - so he could compete in a weight class lower than his natural weight. He was a three-time Florida prep champion at 215 pounds. He entered school in August at 225, Miller said, and was trying to make the 190-pound class (plus a 5-pound allowance) for the opener.

“I want to know what causes a 19-year-old kid to die of a heart attack,” Miller said. “I want to know why we have three deaths now and none before. We’ve been doing the same things for a long time.”

Autopsy results will be released in January, Miller said.

“That’s the frustrating part, waiting for the results,” Miller said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m taking the spotlight off of the wrestlers, but two college basketball players have died in the past two months, too. That’s five kids in the prime of their lives.”

Saylor, 118-2 in high school, was Miller’s first blue-chip recruit.

“He turned down Iowa State and Minnesota to sign with us,” Miller said.

Miller’s assistant coach, Heath Grimm, and another wrestler were working out with Saylor when he died. Saylor began the workout at 2 a.m. and had completed a 1.3-mile run before getting on the exercise cycle. Weigh-in and departure for the tourney were scheduled for 6:30, Miller said.

“I was proud of my assistant coach because he was doing the right things to help Billy lose weight,” Miller said. “(Saylor) wasn’t riding a bike in a sauna. He was trying to lose weight the right way - by sweating it out.”

Two other wrestlers died since Saylor, and both were undergoing strenuous workouts to cut weight rapidly.

“Every time another kid died, I’ve had to relive it over again,” Miller said.

Miller is pushing for changes in NCAA rules. Among other things, he’d like to see weigh-ins held 2 hours before matches or tournaments instead of the night before. And he’d like to see the weight classes adjusted.

“We want to move in the forefront of the wrestling community as far as weight loss is concerned,” Miller said. “This is something that could tear up a school, but I’ve had incredible support from (school officials).

“I feel like we have one of the safest weight-cutting programs. We’re not going to run back and hide and hope it doesn’t happen again. Billy’s life meant something and we want it to mean even more. Maybe through his death, we’ll have an opportunity to save other kids’ lives.”

, DataTimes