High school football heats up
WARR ACRES — The sweat streaks were visible on the jerseys before players had even left the locker room.
Putnam City coach Jon Garfield was giving his team a speech in the depths of Putnam City Stadium. The players had yet to start a drill, but most were drenched in sweat from the heat outside.
“At least it' s not 130,” Garfield joked with them.
As high school football practice opened across the state Monday, teams dealt with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees with heat indexes reaching 115 in some places. Recent rains contributed to a rise in humidity, making the blistering conditions more sweltering. The temperature for those practicing on turf fields was even higher.
Norman athletes hopped in cold tubs under the stadium bleachers following their practice. Those in Jones did the same thing, even when their first session concluded at 9 a.m.
Putnam City shifted its schedule around to practice later in the afternoon with walkthroughs and meetings going on during the warmest portion of the day.
In fact, many Oklahoma City-area teams changed their practice schedules, working to keep athletes and coaches out of the scorching sun. Yet some schools didn't have the luxury to do so because they're in session. An afternoon practice was the only option.
Washington coach Brad
Beller saw it as a positive that his players were going to be at the school all day. Although the team would have to practice in the afternoon, coaches and administrators were able t o keep everyone hydrated with different hydration stations set up throughout the school and football complex.
Coaches made s ur e ki ds were drinking plenty of water between classes, and the team t ook mandatory br e a ks t o rehydrate and found shade to cool off.
“It's a benefit that we're able to keep them hydrated throughout the day,” Beller said. “That's almost as important as staying hydrated when you're in the heat. We didn't have to worry about them coming to practice without enough fluids in them.”
Schools like Edmond Santa Fe and others that aren't in session yet moved their practices to the evening or early morning. Santa Fe coach Kyle White said he and his staff decided to move practice to 6 a.m. to alleviate heat on their athletes.
The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association has an extreme heat policy. For football, it specifies preseason practices are limited to 2 ½ - hour segments with an hour between sessions. No more than 5 hours of practice will be allowed in a 24-hour period.
It also specifies how often athletes should be given water breaks, depending on the heat index. In Monday's case, OSSAA policy calls for water breaks every 30 minutes that last at least 10 minutes in length.
At the end of June, Deer Creek senior Sam Tign or was hospitalized because of a heat-related illness. Although Tignor is now home and continuing his recovery, the proximity of the incident brings about more awareness of athlete' s safety, especially with football season beginning.
Athletic departments throughout the metro area are no stranger to hot conditions during early August. Moore Public Schools athletic director Brian Fitzgerald said his schools and t raining staffs have always tried to stay a step ahead when it came to athlete safety.
Thirty minutes before practice at Moore, Southmoore and Westmoore, trainers use a wet bulb, which measures temperature, humidity and how much water vapor is in the air, to observe conditions on the practice fields.
If it's too hot, practice will wait or move indoors in some capacity.
Each district has a heat policy, along with the OSSAA, that helps deal with severe conditions like Mondays. Fitzgerald says communicating with his coaches and athletic trainers at different sites over time helped them prepare for sultry conditions.
“As more and more research comes out, we continue to add to our policy to stay at the cutting edge,” Fitzgerald said. “We try to make sure our athletes are informed. If they' re informed and make better decisions, it helps everyone.”