High school football coaches always ready for heat-related issues

As the first week of high school football practice arrives Monday in preparation for the 2024 season, Week 1 usually is accompanied by hot temperatures.

Thus, heat-related issues are always on the minds of the local high school football coaches as they begin having practices.

“It’s one of those things you have to get used to — it’s August in Oklahoma,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “We’ll have plenty of water, Gatorade and cold towels for the kids — whatever they need. We’ll look into the dew point and the temperature. There’s regulations there what the state can let you do and not do if it’s a certain dew point and temperature. We’ll keep a close eye out for that. We’ll just play our (practice) schedule according to that.”

“It (the heat) turns on,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “We have to go by the wet bulb tent. We’ll have that out here. We’ll have the ice masks and cold tubs ready in case we need them. I think my staff does a great job making sure the kids are taken care of with plenty of water breaks. We do all the precautionary things we have to do. We’re going to do all those to make sure we keep these kids safe.”

“We’ll adjust our practice time, whether we’re in the morning or later in the evening, just to try to avoid (the heat) as much as possible so we can get as much accomplished as we can,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “It’s every year. You go through about 30 days where the temperatures are going to be where the heat index is going to be above 100 (degrees). You just have to adjust, prepare and definitely keep an eye on the boys while they’re practicing. At the same time, you’ve got a lot (of offensive plays and defensive schemes) you’re trying to get in.”

“We have (practice) times set right now, but if the weather is too hot, then we’ll move practice (times) as far as time and day,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said. “We told them from Day 1 it’s going to be a pretty hot summer. We really stressed them getting out and staying out of the air conditioning. A lot of that stuff depends upon them because you can only do so much for an hour a day in a controlled environment, so a lot of that stuff (getting acclimated to the hot temperatures) they were going to have to do on their own. We’re not out there to kill them. We’re basically out there to fine tune and learn. We’re ready for any heat issues. We’ll do water breaks.”

“We’re going to have some hoses out there,” first-year Gans coach Gary Hixon said. “We’re going to hook up some homemade type of stuff. We’re going to poke some holes to where they can have some kind of mist. We’ll have a stock tank out there. Of course, we’re going to have a ton of water. I told my kids they need to be drinking water — a gallon a day — to stay hydrated. We’re going to have to make sure these kids are hydrated really well. I’m going to talk to our administration to see if we can make sure they can carry a water bottle and drink water while in class. Some of these kids may end up getting sick because of the heat, so we’re going to try to prevent that as much as possible.”

“We’re going to look and see what the forecast is going to be,” Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said. “They’re talking like it might be a little bit cooler when we start (practice). If we have to, we’ll practice later in the evening, you know like 6 p.m. instead of 3:30 p.m. We’re going to set up a tent out there, and we’ll try to get a fan with a mister on it. We’ll give them plenty of water breaks.”

Players will be in just helmets and shorts from Monday through Thursday, then they will don the pads beginning next Friday, which will be the day that practices will get a little more detailed. It will be next Friday that the hot weather will become a bigger factor when the players have more stuff on during practice.

“We have a school policy on that,” Vian coach Gary Willis said about dealing with the heat. “We follow that. We’ll have a lot of water breaks. There’s nothing you can do about the heat. We won’t have pads on until Friday. There will be some getting after it in those first four days, but there will be a lot of talking and walking through stuff, and learning. We’ll take care of them.”