There’s one thing you can count on, at least usually, when high school football practice begins, as it did on Monday. Mother Nature will bring the heat.
All school’s football coaching staffs have had protocols and measures in place for years about how to combat heat-related issues. This week, the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association was expected to give some strict guidelines all high school football coaching staffs will have to do to keep their players safe when the temperatures are near the century mark — which they are forecasted to be this week during the first week of football practice.
“The heat is another thing,” Vian coach Gary Willis said. “The state (OSSAA) is coming down with new requirements. We’ve got to watch that. There may be some days we will have to practice in the mornings. It might limit the times in the evenings when you’re padded that you can do practice. Plus, when the wet bulb gets to a certain point, you have to keep that in mind. Schools always had protocols in that took care of all that. With some of these new guidelines, it’s going to cut practice down. These days that were going to have the typical August heat, it would shut you down to an hour of practice outside without pads and with no conditioning because of that heat. Right now (on Wednesday), we would have been borderline because it was a fairly breezy day outside. It’s August in Oklahoma — we’ll be fine, either way.”
“Everything is in place,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said. “We’ve got a plan of action. All the protocols are in place. We have a plan with the practice schedule to help out with that. We have set times where it takes a lot of the question (of heat issues) out of it. We’ll take as many breaks as we need to. It goes back to Summer Pride. We did a lot of conditioning then. They’re not foreign to the heat. That’s why I like going (into practice) all the way up until school starts (in August) with Summer Pride. The kids are out and active.”
“You go through Summer Pride, but it’s different in practice,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “You’re getting acclimated to the heat. We have things in place for that, and there’s going to be more things added next week according to what the OSSAA does. There will be things we have to do to make sure we’re not out in it (the heat) in certain temperatures. With the humidity, it definitely elevates that temperature to what it really feels like. We’re going to do a lot of our stuff early in the morning and late in the evening to try to make sure we go when it’s a little bit cooler. Taking care of our guys — that’s the No. 1 thing.”
Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said he does have an idea to help combat whatever Mother Nature does.
“Mother Nature hates football practice,” Holt said. “She wants it as hot as it possibly can be. During the spring, Mother Nature hates baseball as she brings rain. In the big scheme of things, we should swap those — we should be playing football in the spring and baseball in the fall. The (Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities) Association was supposed to vote on a proposal Monday night, which they thought would pass. It’s going to go to a wetbulb globe temperature. If it (the temperature) is to a certain point, you make these accommodations. If it gets to a certain point, you can’t practice at all. If it gets as hot as they’ve been saying, practice may be pretty limited.”
