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GREENSBORO —An idyllic afternoon scene unfolded at N.C. A&T, with white clouds floating high over the cobalt-blue track where a few dozen runners ran their workouts in a light breeze.

The early April day was placid in comparison to the scene there about eight months ago when A&T student Jospin "Andre" Milandu died during what school officials say was an unauthorized tryout.

Now, in the spring track season, the athletics department, the track and field program and its athletes are still running, but the memory of Milandu's death is not far behind.

The incident cost longtime coach Roy Thompson his job, rattled the leadership of the team and led to the dismissal of top officials in the athletics department.

The fallout also cost A&T tens of thousands in severance pay, with the possibility of millions later if the Milandu family pursues legal action against the school.

"Everything that happened caught me by surprise," Vincent Alford, a middle distance runner, said about Milandu's Aug. 19 death. "In cross country season (of fall 2010), we had the same drive, the same intensity and emotion, and then it felt weird."

The senior said that athletes are still driven in the spring, but notice the absence of Thompson.

"His presence is definitely felt on and off the track," Alford said.

Thompson wasn't the only one to go.

After Milandu's death, the athletics director, associate athletics director, compliance director and head athletics trainer were dismissed. That cost more than $50,000 in severance, though the school would have paid that in salaries anyway.

One unnamed employee has contested his release internally and through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It remains to be seen whether the Milandu family will sue A&T or settle outside of court.

"In all fairness, it may not have yet matured enough for there to be clear boundaries asserted, and for claims to be made," said the Milandu family attorney, Frank Johns.

Thompson, who had coached the team for 26 years, retired in December. He did not return messages for this story.

Associate head coach James Daniels has led the team since, and the hiring of a new head coach is expected this summer, according to athletics director Earl Hilton.

The churn has impacted the morale of the team.

"The motivation level has dropped a bit," Alford said. "Some people show it in practice, but when it's time to perform, we show up."

That much is true. At the first outdoor meet A&T has hosted since Milandu died there -- the Friendship and Freedom games April 15-16 -- the school had several athletes place first or in the top three for multiple distances, and both Aggies 400-meter relay teams won.

Crystal Carrington, another senior, ran on the winning women's 400 relay team.

"When the situation first happened," Carrington said, "everybody was discouraged."

Some runners, she said, wondered if they even wanted to stay on without the coach, who was nicknamed "Spaceman."

"People felt kind of down," Carrington said. "But with coach D (Daniels), he's been here, too."

And the school helped Daniels by hiring a temporary assistant coach.

"We don't feel like we're on an island," Daniels said.

Keeping a watch on the track and field program, and helping it beyond the crisis is important, according to Hilton, as well as for other sports.

But the heart of the issue is to avoid preventable deaths.

Medical professionals have said that Milandu's death didn't have to happen. He and other students at the tryout did not have physicals on file, which would have also included a test for sickle cell trait or a waiver of that test as required by NCAA rules.

Milandu died as a result of sickle cell trait. And because the school did not officially know of the August tryout, medical resources were not made readily available.

After investigations in the athletics department, people were fired, and then another round of investigations occurred in January when an email was found that told coaches not to test athletes for sickle cell trait. That email was sent two days before Milandu's death.

Hilton said he's reworked the process by which athletes signal that they'd like to join a team. He hired a new compliance director, and doubled the size of the compliance staff, he said.

"They can't think about sweating until the compliance office has been through their tryout packet, and their walk-on application packet is vetted with the trainers, communicated with coaches and gone through the NCAA," Hilton said.

There are no guarantees that another tragedy won't occur, but all precautions are being taken, he said.

"I cannot promise, though I wish I could, that we will never have another tragedy or student death at A&T," Hilton said. "What I will tell you is it will not be because we weren't providing medical care, or didn't have the policies enforced for student-athletes at A&T.

"It won't be because of a lack of procedures."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com