‘This is our norm’: Sacramento-area schools change game times to avoid heat wave
High school coaches and the football teams they lead have to be more flexible now than decades past. The COVID-19 pandemic, wildfire smoke and now excessive heatwaves have all caused schedules to be changed on the fly as prep football continues to face challenges.
This week’s prep schedule includes scores of Friday and Saturday games preparing to kick off in the hottest week of the year, leading many teams to push back 7 p.m. or 7:30 varsity starts back an hour or more, or moving Saturday night games into the morning.
“After COVID, everything’s easy,” Rocklin coach Jason Adams said. “All of this is our norm now.”
Rocklin was scheduled to play Capital Christian in a nonleague game Friday in Placer County, but due to a referee shortage, the game was moved to Saturday night. Then the weather forecast for Saturday showed 105-degree temperatures across the region, and hotter if you play on synthetic turf, which radiates heat and makes a player’s cleats feel like they’re going to melt. Now Capital Christian will play Rocklin at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“We wanted to go Saturday night but we knew we had to move that game into the morning,” Adams said. “It’s in the best interest of the kids. What if something tragic happened to a player because of heat? Let’s be smart about this.”
The Capital Christian and Rocklin junior varsity game will follow the varsity at noon or so. Normally, JV teams play before the varsity, but there’s a reason for this switch: They go much faster than the varsity contests.
“First, JV games have 10-minute quarters and varsity has 12-minute quarters,” Adams said. “One thing people don’t know is that for JV games, on the change of possession, the referees roll the clock, unlike for varsity games.”
High school football games are generally only canceled if there are lightning strikes or heavy smoke from wildfires. Area coaches said they will continue to be mindful of hydrating their athletes this week and next. That was a theme entering the season as well as teams deal with hot temperatures longer into the season.
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 10:26 AM.