The heat index in the Iola area on Monday afternoon read 120 degrees.
That’s far too hot for any high school sports team to practice outside and straight up against Kansas State High Schools Activities Asscociation’s rules. The football, cross country and tennis teams are accommodating by holding practices in the early morning or later in the evenings.
Most practices, including Iola’s cross country practices, have been pushed back to later in the evenings as well as mixing in indoor and modified workouts.
“I feel like you always have to have a plan B because you never know what the heat is going to do,” said Iola cross country coach Brittany Daugharthy. “We are practicing late in the afternoon and having a Saturday morning practice. I also have plans for indoor practices.”
Crest’s football team is holding their practices at 6 a.m. this week when temperatures are expected to hover around the upper 70s to lower 80s.
Kansas coaches are required to use a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature monitor to test the heat index. When Crest head coach Nick McAnulty tested it at dinner time a few days ago, he said it was still too hot outside to practice.
Coaches are expected to make decisions about practice times and duration by using the WBGT monitor, which includes a measure of the air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover. When the WBGT exceeds 90 degrees, practices are to be delayed until the conditions improve.
“With the regulations we have to follow, there’s no way we could have gotten outside for practice in the afternoon this week,” said McAnulty. “KSHSAA’s guidelines take into account a lot of different factors.”
The Iola, Humboldt and Marmaton Valley football teams are also having early morning practices before school this week, beginning at 6 a.m. The teams then stay inside for conditioning after school until around 4:30 p.m.
All of the local football teams have jamborees this Friday at 7 p.m.
“When I first saw the forecast, I just thought it was going to be another hot August and we’d figure it out,” said Humboldt head coach Logan Wyrick. “As we got closer to the Monday practice, I started to realize that practice wouldn’t happen unless we worked in the morning.”
There have been a number of instances over the years where high school, college and even professional athletes have collapsed and died on the field during practice because coaches were pushing them too hard in the heat of the summer.
These scary scenes shouldn’t need to be examples of when and when not to practice.
“It can be very dangerous, unfortunately,” Daugharthy said. “One of my first thoughts this week was what is the best way to keep kids safe while getting them prepared for the upcoming competition.”
Iola’s football coach also elaborated on his responsibility in this situation.
