Coaches, players will have to handle heat issue; OSSAA to hand out new regulations
There’s one thing you can count on, at least usually, when high school football practice begins, as it will on Monday. Mother Nature will bring the heat.
All high school’s football coaches have had protocols and measures in place for years about how to combat heat-related issues. Next week, the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association is expected to give out some strict guidelines all high school football coaching staffs will have to do to keep their players safe when the temperatures are near the century mark — which they are forecasted to be next week during the first week of football practice.
“It (the heat) is part of it,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “We’re here in Oklahoma. We’re accustomed to it. It’s always been hot during football season. The OSSAA Is going to send out some more guidelines next week, so our practice schedule may vary a little bit after Wednesday because of the guidelines from the OSSAA — which are very good. They’re preventative measures to keep kids safe. We have our own protocols, but right now they’re just recommended. Now, they’re going to be policy. If the heat gets to a certain level, we’ll have to change some things practice wise. I think we’ll be able to adjust.”
“We had a very wet and cool June on into July, then the heat turned on a little bit,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “It’s something you expect in Oklahoma. August and September are usually just as hot as it is in June and July. We’ve been preparing the kids and getting their bodies acclimated to it. We do have protocols in place and an action plan that we go over as a staff. The OSSAA does a great job every year breaking down the heat issues awareness and let us know how we’re supposed to go about it from their standpoint. They (OSSAA) gave us a lot of great tools this year (at the 2025 Oklahoma Coaches Association Coaches Clinic) to utilize. We feel very confident in making sure our emergency plan is up to date — and making sure our kids are healthy.”
“It’s a point of emphasis from the state this year,” Roland coach Greg Wise said. “That’s something here at Roland we’ve put an emphasis on ever since I’ve been here. We always measure our weather conditions with a wet-bulb globe. We have one, and we’ve used it religiously. We take precautions with it. We follow guidelines. At the (Oklahoma Coaches Association) Coaches Clinic (last week in Tulsa), they talked about that and how they’re going to have a new plan for everyone. We’ve got to all abide by the rules. Everyone has got to have the wet globe temperature reader. It’s not going to be anything new for us. We’ve always set it (wet-bulb globe) before practice. We’ve had to adjust our practice schedule based on it. For us coaches, it’s not going to be anything different. I think we’ll be all right with the precautions we have in place.”
“You go through Summer Pride, but it’s different in practice,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “You’re getting acclimated to the heat. We have things in place for that, and there’s going to be more things added next week according to what the OSSAA does. There will be things we have to do to make sure we’re not out in it (the heat) in certain temperatures. With the humidity, it definitely elevates that temperature to what it really feels like. We’re going to do a lot of our stuff early in the morning and late in the evening to try to make sure we go when it’s a little bit cooler. Taking care of our guys — that’s the No. 1 thing.”
“The heat is another thing,” Vian coach Gary Willis said. “The state (OSSAA) is coming down with new requirements. We’ve got to watch that. There may be some days we will have to practice in the mornings. It might limit the times in the evenings when you’re padded that you can do practice. Plus, when the wet bulb gets to a certain point, you have to keep that in mind. S c h o o l s always had p r o t o c o l s that took care of all that. With some of these new guidelines, it’s going to cut practice down. These days that were going to have the typical August heat, it would shut you down to an hour of practice outside without pads and with no conditioning because of that heat. Right now (on Wednesday), we would have been borderline because it was a fairly breezy day outside. It’s August in Oklahoma — we’ll be fine, either way.”
“Everything is in place,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said. “We’ve got a plan of action. All the protocols are in place. We have a plan with the practice schedule to help out with that. We have set times where it takes a lot of the question (of heat issues) out of it. We’ll take as many breaks as we need to. It goes back to Summer Pride. We did a lot of conditioning then. They’re not foreign to the heat. That’s why I like going (into practice) all the way up until school starts (in August) with Summer Pride. The kids are out and active.”
“We’ll have our protocols, and we’ll have our wet bulb out,” Gans coach Gary Hixon said. “We’ll do everything the state has recommended for us. We’re working in our, I call it, dunk pool. It’s our water trough, where we’ll keep water and ice. We’ll keep that in the shade. We want to get these kids acclimated to the heat.”
Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said he does have an idea to help combat whatever Mother Nature does.
“Mother Nature hates football practice,” Holt said. “She wants it as hot as it possibly can be. During the spring, Mother Nature hates baseball as she brings rain. In the big scheme of things, we should swap those — we should be playing football in the spring and baseball in the fall. The (Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities) Association is supposed to vote on a proposal Monday night, which they think will pass. It’s going to go to a wet-bulb globe temperature. If it (the temperature) is to a certain point, you make these accommodations. If it gets to a certain point, you can’t practice at all. If it gets as hot as they’ve been saying, practice may be pretty limited.”
