Beat the heat: High school football has come light years from no water, no breaks
The benefit of a synthetic turf on any high school campus is its durability. You don’t have to mow it, treat it or even water it.
Many Sacramento-area high school football teams have artificial fields, but when it starts to sizzle, broil and bake, that same convenient turf radiates heat like so many green solar panels. Sometimes it requires a sprinkler session to cool things a bit as heat tends to intensify a practice. If not handled the right way, heat can also dull a practice.
Practice started Monday for prep football teams across the Sac-Joaquin Section. The sessions were without helmets and pads, though all of that is coming soon, and so, too, is the intense heat. How coaches deal with getting their rosters — freshmen, junior varsity and varsity — acclimated to the conditions is the first challenge of a season that expects to have plenty of issues.
Most area programs practice in the late afternoon, to best align with after-school practices when the academic year starts. Some go in the morning, to beat the heat, stressing that the crisp early air adds extra zing to sessions. Or, if you’re Antelope coach Reggie Harris, you go early to create habits.
“We get out here at 4:45 a.m., and that way no one can come up with excuses: No doctor’s appointments, no dentist appointments,” Harris said. “Tell me what you have to do that early to miss practice. It initiates accountability. It also means a kid can’t be up all night, or on his phone all night, if they expect to be up early and at practice, where we expect a lot of them. We still run them hard enough in the morning, and we’ll get used to the heat soon enough. We’ll handle it.”
To that point, coaches are conditioned to expect anything. They were able to navigate and maneuver through myriad challenges with COVID-19 during the spring 2021 season that included an exhaustive amount of testing, spaced-out drills, canceled practices and games. Last fall, it started to feel normal again. In recent years, coaches and athletes have also had to deal with early season smoky skies from wildfires. Dealing with the heat is a breeze because heat is a given.
Changing times
The days of running guys into the ground with water nowhere in sight like a self-imposed drought are long over. Two-a-day practices are horror stories of the past. In those days, it was a test of manhood — How tough are you, son? — to not have water. Liquid was a sign of weakness.
Common sense took over when the obvious became gospel: A hydrated athlete is a much healthier and better performing one. Football is hard enough with trying to make a team, or to get within the playing rotation, not to mention warding off guys trying to hit you into next week. To best endure all of it: Water up.
“We as coaches walk the fine line of building toughness and doing it the intelligent way,” Pleasant Grove coach Josh Crabtree said. “Something we often said when I was coaching at American River College was, ‘Your brain will quit on you before the body will.’ So, putting kids in a stressful situation before playing under the Friday night lights in front of thousands of people are good reps, including hot practices. We’ve all moved past the idea if you can walk, you can practice. Over the years, I’ve seen kids sidelined with heat illness, and it scares you straight. It’s not a question of toughness. It’s about educating the kids, doing it the right and smart way.”
Not too far away within the same Elk Grove Unified School District, Monterey Trail coach T.J. Ewing will turn on the sprinklers to soothe his athletes if the temperatures roar past 100. The coach said it’s a feel of “Water World.” He also stressed that coaches haven’t gotten softer over time, just smarter.
And just down Calvine Road from Monterey Trail is Sheldon, practices conclude with the joy of a cooler full of Otter Pops, the savory frozen popsicles. There is no lack of motivation to end these practices.
“Are they part of the package? They are the package!” Sheldon coach Chris Nixon said. “Proper hydration, plenty of breaks, water cannons firing on the field, and the piece de resistance: Otter Pops!”
Nixon said coaches young and old invite the high heat this time of year. Managing the elements could mean handling a season, or at least the fourth quarter where the mighty are left standing. Handling the heat is a challenge in itself, and it can make or break teams. Teams either get into shape or fade off.
“We are actually a bit sad when the temperatures hover at 80 because we are not sure (my wife Tina) will be wheeling out the Otter Pop ice chest,” Nixon said.
In Loomis in Placer County, Del Oro coach Mike Maben doesn’t just address the heat, he dresses the part to take it head on. Not with shorts, a tank top and flip flops. Football practice is no day on the beach.
No, the coach who played sports at Del Oro arrives to practice in long pants, long sleeves, and sometimes with a hoodie. Sweat it out, is his mantra. Just don’t stand down wind of the sweaty one after practice ends.
“I’ve done this every day since I’ve done this, and some of it is my wrestling background,” Maben said of his attire. “People look at me like I’m crazy, but we also have to worry as coaches about too much sun exposure. So wear sleeves. I’ve got coaches on my staff battling melanoma.”
Water here, there, everywhere
Area coaches mandate regular water breaks. It’s a part of practice just as much as it used to not be a part of practice. Programs have water stations, water bottles by the dozens, and some have buckets with cooling towels. Coaches ask their team captains to keep an eye on each other. If someone looks overly heated, say something.
Coaches are required by the governing body California Interscholastic Federation to undergo heat-education courses. Area coaches also stress good diet: Avoid drive thru, avoid soda and energy drinks. And water. Drink it regularly, coaches insist. Nothing is better for the body than that natural resource.
“Hydrated athletes are much happier athletes, and they pay attention,” Maben said.
In El Dorado Hills, Oak Ridge coach Casey Taylor recalls playing football for the school in the 1980s, when water was mere rumor. To approach water then was a quick way to earn a coach’s wrath.
“We’ve come a long way; we have tons of water, and so much money is spent on ways to hydrate that you can’t not have water everywhere,” Taylor said. “When I played here, I remember rinsing my mouth out with water, if we were lucky. I got caught once drinking water out of a mosquito-infested sprinkler. Had to do bear crawls all over. But that’s how it was then.”
Oak Ridge running back/linebacker Jake Hall said another emphasis is rest. Oak Ridge has early morning weight-lifting sessions and later afternoon football practices. He said players also keep an eye out for one another. This is a team adventure, not some hazing deal to see who buckles first.
“After weights, we go home, rest, drink half a gallon of water, eat good foot, get rest, because if you don’t you feel it instantly in the later practices,” Hall said. “We also keep an eye out for anyone not feeling right, a hit or heat, someone limping around. You don’t want to be that guy who sits out a drill, but it’s not worth trying to tough it out.”
Said Crabtree of Pleasant Grove, “These kids have grown up together, gone to school together, and they can sense when something is off with one of their friends. If you spot something in a teammate, say something. This prevents them from missing a week, and we all win. The kid is safe and the team is whole.”