High school teams try to work around string of high heat temperatures
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The heat index ed over 100 degrees Wednesday, and it’s just the latest day to reach triple digits in a week-long heat stretch.
For student-athletes on the field, they are more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses.
“I honestly see heat-related issues every day,” said Marissa Lucas, athletic trainer at Cross Creek High School.
Lucas says she often sees symptoms standing on the sidelines.
“Once we step into practice, what I’m looking for is especially the heavier guys on my O-line and my D-line. I’m looking for excessive sweating and disorientation or any throwing up,” said Lucas.
Common questions she asks is if her athletes had anything to eat or to drink ahead of practice.
“It doesn’t start in practice. If you’re hydrating just in practice, you’re way too late. And there’s nothing that I can do at that point. But now we’re just waiting for something to happen. It starts at home with proper nutrition, getting the carbohydrates getting the protein back into your body, and proper hydration. They should be drinking about a gallon depending on their body weight every single day. And they need to honestly replace everything that they sweat out that day,” she said.
Before practice, precaution starts with a thermometer called a WetBulb.
“It does a measurement of a combination of the heat with the humidity, it’s almost kind of mixes in with the heat index,” said ARC interim head coach, Rodney McFadden.
It’s a tool required by the Georgia High School Association. It’s a sliding scale that determines how long a practice can last, how many water breaks are required, and whether or not a team can practice.
“I have to take a WetBulb up to 30 minutes prior to any activity. So whether they’re practice or softball also practices at 6:30. So I’m taking the wet ball for practice at five o’clock because they practice at 5:30. And then again at six o’clock, just in 30 minutes in between every single practice just to see if any temperature has changed or whether the restrictions have changed,” said Lucas.
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