Sacramento-area high school sports canceled by heat, football games starting at 9 p.m.
Matt Costa said he could feel it Tuesday morning when he stepped outside, in the morning.
And then he could sense it.
“It’s so hot that you can smell it,” the Del Campo High School football coach said Tuesday afternoon in trying to navigate ways to deal with record heat. “It’s hotter for September than I can ever remember. It’s brutal. It’s nuts. My skin feels like it’s curdling outside. It’s like the seas are boiling.”
Close enough. With temperatures hitting 116 on Tuesday and projected to be 109 on Wednesday, 112 on Thursday and 108 on Friday, area coaches are tasked with being mindful of the excessive heat warnings and keeping their student-athletes and themselves safe, all while being flexible about scheduling practices and games.
Football teams and other sports have turned to practicing in early morning, before school, or at 8 p.m., when the sun has already set. The Elk Grove Unified School District has urged its member schools to cancel golf, tennis, cross country and water polo matches this week and to postpone them to next week when the temperatures drop to more normal heights.
Non-football sporting events in the Twin Rivers Unified School District, San Juan Unified and Sacramento City Unified have also been canceled Tuesday and Wednesday, and perhaps all week.
Football remains in play, at least the varsity games, though those games are often being pushed back to 8 or 9 p.m. kickoffs. Why keep football? Well, hot weather happens, and if the games are played with the sun down, it’s safer than when the sun is up. Also, schools widely depend heavily on the revenue generated from tickets and snack bar sales to help fund athletic programs. Football games generally are not canceled unless there are lightning strikes or fires.
The governing body California Interscholastic Federation leaves it up to each school and district to make the call on whether or not to have sporting events in hot weather. Most districts in the state will not allow sporting events to take place when it’s 105 degrees or hotter. The CIF will make the call when it is the postseason, and it has delayed the start of the football playoffs a week in the past due to wildfire smoke clogging the air.
Costa at Del Campo said that the school’s junior varsity will host Woodland on Thursday at 8 p.m. and the varsity teams will play on Friday at 8 p.m., also at Del Campo.
The EGUSD so far is the only local district to cancel all junior varsity football games, as those kickoff at 5, 6 or 6:30, often the peak heat hour. Moving football games to Saturday morning isn’t as easy as it sounds, as a lot of venues are reserved for youth football events. The forecast for Saturday is a high of 91.
“We have to be flexible and we have to keep the kids safe,” said Suzanne Baker, the athletic director for the Natomas Unified School District. “We’ve moved practices indoors or in the morning for sports. It’s crazy hot. Football is especially susceptible to the heat, and it’s not just the players. There are coaches and referees, too.”
Inderkum of the Natomas District will host Cosumnes Oaks in a varsity football game Thursday. The kickoff has been pushed back to 7:30 p.m. The junior varsity game has been canceled, Baker said.
In Placer County, scores of non-football events have been canceled this week. Placer County schools, as of Tuesday afternoon, were going with the scheduled freshman football games on Thursday night, though most are pushed back to 7 p.m. kickoffs.
The Liberty Ranch of Galt varsity football game at Bear River has been moved to Galt on Friday. The JV game has been canceled. The venue change is to ensure better air quality as the wildfire smoke may be unhealthy in Lake of the Pines on Friday.
The Honor Bowl, which recognizes first responders and military personnel, will feature a doubleheader varsity event on Friday at Oak Ridge in El Dorado Hills. Oak Ridge plays Silverton of Oregon at 4 p.m. and Granite Bay will face Spanish Springs of Nevada at 7:30 p.m. Event coordinator Mark Soto said Wednesday that he may push those games back to 6:30 and 9 p.m.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep the athletes as cool as possible,” he said. “We rented large fan misters that will be placed behind the athletes on the bench and we are renting an ice truck to make sure we don’t run out of ice for the water jugs. Shade canopies will be allowed over the sideline benches. Cooler buckets with ice towels will be provided. Plus, (Emergency Medical Technicians) will be loaded up with ice-cooled IVs for anyone who needs it..”
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.