This story has been updated with new announcements from soccer and football.
With temperatures surpassing the century mark every day this week and heat indices making it feel close to 120 degrees Tuesday, the National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning until 9 p.m. Friday.
The extreme heat has impacted many fall sports activities and has caused coaches to make adjustments to their practice schedules.
Athletic Director Cara Kimberlin said the boys soccer game Friday against Lansing could be affected. Coach Darren Erpelding confirmed Wednesday that the game is canceled due to KSHSAA heat guidelines and the schools agreeing on the decision for the safety of the athletes.
The football jamboree event was pushed to 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Turner High School, head football coach Drew Steffen said.
The Meet the Cardinals cookout at the middle school was also moved from Thursday to 11 a.m. Saturday. The fall sports scrimmages at the cookout will begin with volleyball at 9 a.m., football at 9:30 a.m., and a cross country run at 10:30 a.m.
Kimberlin said everyone’s top concern when the weather gets dangerous is to ensure everyone is safe.
“Our first priority is the safety of our people. That’s our kids and our coaches,” she said. “I can’t stress enough how great our coaches are about just being smart, and recognizing that nobody’s life or health is more important than a practice.”
KSHSAA requires each school district to follow its recommended activity modification guidelines for extreme heat.
The guidelines are based on a range of wet bulb globe temperatures. EHS athletic trainer Bob Rusche uses a special heat tracker to determine this.
The tracker measures humidity, temperature, wind speed and solar radiation. The wet bulb globe temperature is a measure of how well your body can dissipate the heat, Rusche said.
“It’s less of a high number than a heat index, but it’s more indicative of what you’re feeling when you’re sweating or exercising,” Rusche said.
Rusche said the biggest threat for athletes in extreme temperatures is heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
Heat exhaustion is less severe than heatstroke, but can lead to heatstroke. Symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, dizziness, fatigue and a weak, rapid pulse.
Heatstroke is an emergency situation, Rusche said.
Heatstroke occurs when the body’s temperature goes over 104 degrees. Symptoms include an altered mental state or behavior, alteration in sweating, nausea, flushed skin and rapid breathing.
Rusche said if a player were to suffer from heatstroke at the high school, his job is to call 911, and then lead the player over to an ice tub that sits outside the training room and dunk the athlete in to lower their body temperature.
The wet bulb globe temperatures have been over 89.8 degrees the last two days, so fall sports have not been able to practice outdoors after school in accordance with KSHSAA’s guidelines.
However, coaches have made adjustments to practice so players can still put in some work ahead of their sport’s first games or meets of the season.
For instance, the football team spent time watching film and installing its game plan for Baldwin during Monday’s practice. The team will practice in the gym today after volleyball much like it did Monday and Tuesday as well.
Steffen said there are ups and downs to practicing in the gym. The main challenge is making room for everybody to get their reps in.
“We just don’t have the space to get as much done with the younger guys,” Steffen said. “When we have a full field, our freshmen go down or our JV guys go down, and they get just as many reps as our varsity guys. But in the gym, we just don’t have the space.”
Steffen said the team will share the field with the soccer team early Thursday morning, so they can get some time on the field this week.
Even though it’s hard to switch from turf to hardwood, Steffen said the team is still efficient and productive.
“I felt like today was as good of a practice as we’ve had all year, and we literally did true football stuff for like 35 minutes,” Steffen said about Monday’s practice.
Cross country has been practicing at 6 a.m. every morning and will continue to do so for the rest of the week.
“Even then it’s still pretty muggy and hot,” cross country head coach Jim Barnard said.
Barnard said the team usually practices early in the morning for the first few weeks of the season to get the miles in, but the team faces issues with time before school starts and visibility in the mornings.
Two main ideas Barnard harps to his runners from the start of the season is the importance of hydration and sleep.
While he typically allows water breaks for the team every 15-20 minutes, Barnard said this week he is stressing hydration to the runners and letting them get a water break whenever they feel they need it.
“For some kids, we have to kind of encourage them and force them to drink water,” he said. “Some kids like to run their entire workout without water, and we remind them that if you wait until you’re thirsty, you’ve waited too long.”
Barnard said the team is preparing for a change to the first meet of the season on Aug. 31, because temperatures are expected to be near 100 then as well. Barnard said a decision on the meet could be made by the end of this week.
Kimberlin said girls golf head coach Susan DeVoe has been using this week to teach the team about course etiquette and club selection, but the team has also been able to practice some things indoors.
“It’s not unusual to walk in and see our library has been set up into a putting green,” Kimberlin said. “She’s (DeVoe) got a simulator she can use as well.”
Even though it can be frustrating for coaches to adjust their practices because of circumstances out of their control, Kimberlin said she is proud of each coach’s proactiveness.
“As soon as they started predicting this week would be topping 100, they were already adjusting their practice times,” Kimberlin said. “They’re very proactive. They’re planning ahead. I don’t ever have to give them directions because they’re going to make the right decision before I even get to that point.”
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected]
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