The first week of high school football practice was just as much about coaches implementing the playbook as it was gaging the temperature and heat index. All coaches are eager to get players into the flow of the game and adjusting to the pace of practice, but not at the cost of sacrificing a player’s safety during dangerously hot weather. Temperatures in Northeast Georgia all week hovered in the 90s with oppressive humidity during the day. 

The simple fact is, the temperature is high right now. And it’s not to expected to cool down any time soon. 

“The first week of practice is when we look to see how well our conditioning program worked over the summer,” East Hall coach Bryan Gray said. “Then we’re looking for the kids that may have gained a little confidence and re-evaluate things from there.

“But with the heat, you have to be very careful to keep the kids safe.”

Everything football related has to be conducted under a watchful eye.

North Hall coach Bob Christmas is equally concerned with hammering home the details of the playbook, but not without giving equal priority to hydration breaks. He says he’s never strayed from his philosophy to give players breaks every 10-15 minutes. 

“I’ve always felt strongly about that,” Christmas said. 

So do scientists who study athletic performance. This has been an especially difficult summer for high school football as two players in Georgia and another in South Carolina have died recently. Researchers with the Union of Concerned Scientists recently gathered and shared findings related to heat-related deaths in high school football.

The most conclusive finding was that 95 percent of those players who tragically died were overweight based on body mass index, and 86 percent of those who died were linemen. And 25 percent of player deaths occurred during just the first three days of practice.

Making the weather especially challenging is the fact that 78 record-high temperatures were reported last month, according to the National Weather Service. That translates to less time players are able to be exposed to the heat without showing signs of fatigue. On Wednesday, Hall County schools superintendent Will Schofield cut off practices from noon to 6 p.m.

But the best tool to combat the heat is water. 

“These players, even though they may live in a warm area over the summer, are not acclimated to the heat,” said Dr. Michael Bergeron, director of the National Institute for Athletic Health and Performance at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, S.D. “They spend a lot of time indoors over the summer and are not well hydrated, even though hydration is acknowledged by everybody as being important.”

With the first week of practice coming before the start of class for most, coaches had some flexibility to adjust the practice times to make things a bit safer. Lakeview Academy coach Matthew Gruhn said evening practice and shade around the practice field late in the day takes some of the sting out of the heat. He says constant education about the dangers of heat have certainly impacted the thinking of coaches.

“It’s scary to hear about players dying during practice,” Gruhn said. “We get lots of education and information about keeping practice safe, which is good to have.”

Bergeron added that long-term conditioning also has a great impact on a player’s well-being in practice. His research has pointed to the fact that intense training over a short period of time has little impact on performance, but can do great harm. 

“Coaches can accomplish a lot in practice without breaking someone down, but sure can hurt someone in one afternoon, or less than an afternoon,” Bergeron said.

Christmas says he has some very exact procedures he follows during the summer. He says every player is weighed before and after every practice to see how much water weight they’ve lost, then are required to replenish that amount before getting back out on the practice field. 

Through the years, Christmas has found the better shape a player is in, the fewer issues they have with cramps and other heat-related illness. 

“And the less weight they lose too,” Christmas added. 

Since Jefferson City Schools were already in session last week, Dragons coach T. McFerrin had the team on the field at 4 p.m. But even that was subject to change. With high heat indexes, players were only practicing in T-shirts and shorts for a couple of days. Like most schools, the athletic trainer on staff gets the final say. 

“You can’t chance it,” McFerrin said. “When the trainer says get off the field, we leave.”