Beat the Heat
Audra Tatum
Flomaton High School
Flomaton,Al.
Everybody knows in the South during the summer it gets extremely hot. It can even soar into the 100’s. Now imagine having 10 to 15 pounds of shoulder pads and pants on. That just makes it 100 times worse. Everyday many teenage boys hit the field for football practice during the hottest parts of the day for several hours.
A few years ago a guy from my school graduated and had a promising future playing football at Huntington University in the upcoming season. The unexpected happened and his family got a call that their son had passed away. He had been practicing football that day and got dehydrated and died from heat exhaustion.
I have heard several stories just like this one. My dad played football for Auburn University and he said he remembers on one occasion a player “just dropped like a fly.” He said he remembers him just turning really white and falling to the ground. The paramedics tried to revive him but they couldn’t. The next couple of days followed with memorial services and finally a funeral. Our school took this very personal. The same guy we saw everyday walking the halls during the school year had just passed. We had a memorial service for him that following week and this made many people realize the threat of practicing during the hottest parts of the day.
It is sad to hear that something that those guys loved killed them. This is why I think coaches should take more consideration in when their practice times are and the amount of water breaks there are during the practice. In the evenings and mornings it is a considerable amount of degrees cooler. Being more cautious about when they practice could maybe save some lives.
Flomaton High School
Flomaton,Al.
Everybody knows in the South during the summer it gets extremely hot. It can even soar into the 100’s. Now imagine having 10 to 15 pounds of shoulder pads and pants on. That just makes it 100 times worse. Everyday many teenage boys hit the field for football practice during the hottest parts of the day for several hours.
A few years ago a guy from my school graduated and had a promising future playing football at Huntington University in the upcoming season. The unexpected happened and his family got a call that their son had passed away. He had been practicing football that day and got dehydrated and died from heat exhaustion.
I have heard several stories just like this one. My dad played football for Auburn University and he said he remembers on one occasion a player “just dropped like a fly.” He said he remembers him just turning really white and falling to the ground. The paramedics tried to revive him but they couldn’t. The next couple of days followed with memorial services and finally a funeral. Our school took this very personal. The same guy we saw everyday walking the halls during the school year had just passed. We had a memorial service for him that following week and this made many people realize the threat of practicing during the hottest parts of the day.
It is sad to hear that something that those guys loved killed them. This is why I think coaches should take more consideration in when their practice times are and the amount of water breaks there are during the practice. In the evenings and mornings it is a considerable amount of degrees cooler. Being more cautious about when they practice could maybe save some lives.