Sachem East graduate Carlin Schledorn, who played football as a junior, said carrying the log about 12 feet (3.7 meters) long and the diameter of a utility pole was a "team building" exercise.
"It's very big. It's like a tree, and it's a challenge for people who weightlift," he said. "Five or six people do it at once.
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Some colleges and other high schools around the country have incorporated log-carrying drills and other military-inspired exercises into their football preparations in recent years, sometimes bringing in SEALs to teach and motivate.
Players at Indiana's New Albany High School teamed up last month to tote 6-foot-long, 200-pound logs 2 miles from a local amphitheater to the school.
SEALs and Green Berets trained the players first on how to lift the logs and carry them on their shoulders, coach Steve Cooley said. Accompanied by coaches and a police escort, the groups paused for water and put the logs down every one or two blocks, and each six-person squad had an extra man who could sub in if someone got tired.
"The purpose was not to try to see how tough they are ... the purpose was to accomplish a goal," Cooley said. "It was very rewarding for all of us."
But after Mileto's death on Thursday, sports safety expert Douglas Casa questioned the wisdom of having teenagers perform an exercise that involves carrying a heavy object and that was developed for Navy SEALs, "potentially a very different clientele."
"There's so much potential for things to go wrong that I would really want people to think twice before doing something like that," said Casa, executive director of the University of Connecticut's Korey Stringer Institute, which works to improve safety for athletes.
