Former College Football Coach to Stand Trial in Player’s Training Death

A Pennsylvania judge ruled Friday that a criminal case tied to the 2024 death of 18-year-old college football player Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. can move forward against one of his former Bucknell University coaches.

Mark Kulbis, Bucknell’s former strength and conditioning coach, is set to face trial on a felony aggravated hazing charge. He is also charged with misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and hazing in connection with Dickey’s death.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday described the ruling as a significant development in the case. “This was an important step in the prosecution process and in our continued pursuit of justice for a young man who died tragically due to the defendant’s conduct,” Sunday said in a department statement.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Jaime Keating will lead the prosecution of Kulbis. Through his attorney, the former coach has denied being responsible for the tragedy.

According to the attorney general’s office, Dickey was a freshman in July 2024 when Kulbis directed him and other Bucknell football players to complete 100 “up-downs,” commonly known as burpees, as well as full-body plank exercises. Dickey had sickle-cell trait, a condition that can heighten the danger of severe injury or death after extreme physical exertion.

When charges were first announced in July, Dickey’s father, Calvin Dickey Sr. of Land O’ Lakes, Florida, said the family was relieved that someone was being called to account. “We’re at the point where we’re just glad that someone is being held responsible for our son’s death,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “We just want to see the process through, and we’re going to leave it to the attorney general to continue following the evidence.”

Kulbis’ lawyer, Barbara Zemlock, has maintained that her client did not cause Dickey’s death. “While the death of Calvin Dickey is tragic, Mark Kulbis did not contribute to it and is not responsible for it,” Zemlock said in a written statement. She added that the strength and conditioning program used was appropriate, consistent with Kulbis’ training and aligned with applicable standards.

Sickle-cell trait is identified through a blood test and typically does not interfere with day-to-day life. However, intense exercise, dehydration and elevated body temperatures can reduce blood flow and trigger muscle breakdown. In extremely rare instances, those complications can lead to a collapse and death.

After other deaths involving athletes with sickle-cell trait, the NCAA in 2010 began requiring that new Division I athletes be tested for the condition and alerting coaches that athletes with it should slowly build up their intensity while training and be provided adequate rest and recovery.

Dickey, who was 6ft 5in (195 cm) and nearly 300 pounds (136 kg), had grown up playing sports and by his junior year of high school decided to focus on football, his parents said. He played both offensive and defensive lineman, meaning he was often in for the vast majority of the game.

According to a federal lawsuit they filed against Bucknell last year, they did not know he had sickle-cell trait until he took the mandatory screening just weeks before training camp. Calvin Dickey Sr. said that the day before camp was to start, he received assurances from the offensive line coach that his son would be protected.

But Dickey Jr. started struggling and passed out while doing exercises that Kulbis had assigned as a punishment for the players not performing drills correctly, the lawsuit said.

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‘Upon information and belief, the up-downs were intended to serve as a punishment for all or some of the Bucknell freshman football players, including CJ,’ read the lawsuit, obtained by The Daily Mail.

He was hospitalized and died two days later.

The lawsuit also accuses the school of failing to be properly prepared in the event of such an emergency.

‘Although the NCAA requires college sports facilities to have Emergency Action Plans (‘EAPs’) designed to respond to emergencies such as the incident involving CJ, and requires that the EAPs be rehearsed by all coaches, trainers, and university employees, Defendant Bucknell did not have the required EAPs and therefore could not and had not rehearsed the EAPs,’ the complaint read.

Bucknell has declined to comment on the pending litigation.

‘The death of a student is always a tragic loss,’ Bucknell said in an April 2025 statement. ‘While the University will not comment on pending litigation, we again extend heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s family, and we will continue to focus on our most important priority — the health and safety of all Bucknell students.’

While it is rare for coaches to be charged criminally in cases where athletes collapse and die, there are several examples.

In Georgia, a girls basketball coach and an assistant coach were charged with murder after 16-year-old Imani Bell suffered heat stroke and died in 2019 during a training session that was held outdoors despite a heat advisory being in effect. That case remains pending. The school district settled the family’s lawsuit for $10 million and agreed to rename the gym in her honor.

In 2009, a former Kentucky high school football coach was acquitted of reckless homicide and endangerment charges in the heatstroke death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin. Defense attorneys argued that Gilpin’s medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder had caused him to overheat.

Dickey Sr. and his wife, Nicole Dickey, said their son loved playing football, but he planned to use his scholarship to Bucknell to receive an education that would eventually help him work in pharmacy. He became enamored of the field after speaking to a family friend who worked as a hospital pharmacist, they said.

Since his death, they have channeled their grief into a foundation that helps raise awareness about sickle cell trait in athletes and promotes the health of student-athletes. It provides scholarships and hosts a program for football linemen called ’50 Cal Big Man Camp,’ after the number he wore.

‘Those are the kind of things right now that bring a smile to my face and touch my heart,’ Nicole Dickey told The Associated Press in July. ‘We want to protect the next generation and share what we’ve learned.’