A former Bucknell University strength and conditioning coach now faces criminal charges, including a felony, in connection with the death of 18-year-old football recruit Calvin "CJ" Dickey Jr., who collapsed during a summer workout and died two days later in July 2024.
Mark Kulbis, 34, of New Columbia, Pennsylvania, has been charged with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter, two counts of misdemeanor hazing, and misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person, the Standard-Journal reported. The charges stem from Dickey's death during what was supposed to be his introduction to college football at the Lewisburg campus.
Five criminal counts. One dead teenager. And a university that, according to a separate wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Dickey family, knew the young man carried a medical condition that made punishing workouts especially dangerous, yet failed to put basic safeguards in place.
CJ Dickey died on July 12, 2024, two days after collapsing during his very first practice at Bucknell. The cause: rhabdomyolysis, a rare, life-threatening muscle breakdown, compounded by a sickle-cell crisis, Fox News reported. Rhabdomyolysis can be triggered by extreme physical exertion, and the risk spikes for individuals who carry the sickle-cell trait.
Dickey had been diagnosed with sickle-cell trait before he ever set foot on campus. The lawsuit his parents filed alleges Bucknell knew about the diagnosis through NCAA-mandated screenings. A trainer even called his mother before camp to assure her that precautions would be taken.
Those precautions, the family says, never materialized.
On July 9, players were ordered to perform 100 "up-downs", a grueling punishment exercise, during which Dickey was observed falling behind the group. The family's lawsuit alleges no athletic trainer was present during the workout and no Emergency Action Plan existed, both of which are required under NCAA rules, the New York Post reported.
Two days later, CJ Dickey was dead.
The criminal case against Mark Kulbis carries five counts in total. The most serious, felony aggravated assault, signals that prosecutors believe the conduct went well beyond carelessness. The remaining charges include one count of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of hazing, and one count of recklessly endangering another person, all classified as misdemeanors under Pennsylvania law.
The Standard-Journal's report describes Kulbis as someone who "had been working" as a Bucknell strength and conditioning coach, past tense, though it remains unclear whether the university terminated him, placed him on leave, or whether he departed on his own. Bucknell has not publicly clarified his employment status in connection with the charges.
Key details remain thin. The charging authority has not been identified in available reporting, and no arraignment date, plea, or custody status has been disclosed. The specific conduct prosecutors allege formed the basis for each count has not been detailed publicly.
The criminal charges arrive against a backdrop of mounting frustration from the Dickey family. In April 2025, CJ's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bucknell, accusing the university of negligence and a failure to follow its own safety obligations.
Mike Caspino, the family's attorney, did not mince words. Fox News quoted him saying:
"He died a horrible, painful death that was 100% preventable."
Caspino also accused Bucknell of stonewalling the family in the months after their son's death. Fox News quoted him further:
"Despite the fact that CJ Dickey died nearly nine months ago, the school has withheld, is not telling his parents the circumstances and the facts around why he died."
The lawsuit itself put the university's silence in even starker terms. The filing stated that "eight months later, Bucknell refuses to acknowledge it caused CJ's death, to apologize, or to institute processes and procedures to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again."
Bucknell has offered only a brief public statement, as reported by the New York Post. The university said: "The death of a student is always a tragic loss... 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."
The school declined to comment on the pending litigation.
What that statement does not address is the core allegation: that Bucknell was told CJ Dickey carried a sickle-cell trait, promised his family it would take precautions, and then ran a punishment workout with no trainer present and no emergency plan on file. The NCAA requires both. Bucknell, a Division I member of the Patriot League, is bound by those rules.
The gap between the assurance given to CJ's mother and the conditions described in the lawsuit is difficult to square.
College athletics has seen a string of exertion-related deaths over the years, and the pattern is grimly familiar: a young athlete with a known medical risk, a staff that either ignores or underestimates that risk, and institutional silence after the worst happens. The NCAA's own protocols for sickle-cell trait exist precisely because this scenario has played out before, and because the consequences are fatal when safeguards fail.
CJ Dickey was 18 years old. He showed up for his first day of college football trusting that the adults in charge had done their jobs. His family trusted the same. A trainer called his mother. Precautions were promised.
Instead, the family alleges, their son was ordered through 100 up-downs with no medical staff on site, collapsed, and died within 48 hours.
Now a strength coach faces a felony. A university hides behind condolence language. And the Dickey family is left to pursue answers through a courtroom because the institution that recruited their son will not provide them voluntarily.
Several questions remain unanswered. Were other staff members involved in designing or supervising the workout? Has Bucknell changed any of its protocols since July 2024? Has the university cooperated with the criminal investigation? None of that is publicly known.
What is known: a young man died, the people responsible for his safety face serious allegations of failure, and the institution that employed them has said as little as possible for nearly a year.
When a university recruits a teenager, takes his medical records, promises his mother he'll be safe, and then cannot explain how he ended up dead two days into camp, criminal charges are not the scandal. The conduct that led to them is.
