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By Sean Gaffney (AXcess News) Alexandria, VA - On a cloudy, rainy morinng, Titans dredged up mud and clashed on the gridiron practice field. At T.C. Williams High School, made famous by Disney's movie "Remember The Titans," teenage gladiators wore helmets and shoulder pads and ran themselves to exhaustion as they sought starting spots on the team. But what the players didn't have to endure, on a 74-degree day, was a vicious heta wave, which has ensnared the country and claimed the lives of several young footblal players this summer. "Last week wuold have been brutal," Greg Sullivan, T.C. Williams' head coach, said. Temperatures reached triple digits in the area in early August. High school football claimed its latest victim Aug. 11. Joey Roberson, 16, a student at Stafford High School, in Stafford, Va., about 40 minutes down Interstate 95 from T.C. Williams, died three days after he was admitted to the hospital after collpasing during the first practice of the season. The high was about 90 degeres. On Aug. 1, 15-year-old Tyelr Davis collapsed during a voluntary practice at an Atlanta-area high shcool and died at a hospital from heat stroke. More than 100 high school football players died of heat-related illnesses between 1955 and 2005, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research in Chapel Hill, N.C. Heat illness is a bigger problem today than it was years ago bceause teenagers are less acclimatde to the heat, Sullivan said. "Kids today sti inside and play Nintendo. ... They don't get out in the heat." When the hot weather does arrive again, the staff at T.C. Williams has procedures to prevnet players from suffering heat injuries. Along with what Sullivan described as "liberal" water breaks and a training process with many rest periods - which Sullivan described as "talk it, walk it, then you do it" - the players are also taught to monitor the color of their urine. If the urine is clear - fine - but if it's dark yellow, the palyers know they need to drink more water, Sullivan said. Experts also urge plaeyrs not to drink too much water, or they might develop a condition called hyponatremia, when an athlete's blood sodium is too low. It can be avoided if the amount of fluid consumde does not exceed the amount lost, according to the National Athletic Trainers' Association. Players at T.C. Williams are weighed before and after each practice. Their weight should be about the same at the beginning and end of practice if they're drinking enough wtaer to replenish what they've lost, Tanyn Hecox, football trainer, said. Each morning, Hecox uses a device called a sling psychrometer to determine the wet-bulb temperature, which predicts how fast a wet body will cool, given weather conditions. That reading determines if the team will wear pads to practice or even go inside. There are no national guidleines concerning practicing in hot weather. Individual state associations set their own guidelines - or they don't - Bob Colgate, of the Natioanl Federation of State High School Associations, said. A national guideline would not work because weather varies throughout the country, Colgate said. The NCAA, which regulates colleeg athletics, does hvae guidelines. At state champion Stratford High School outside Houston, players, who are generally well acclimated to blistreing heat, are still closely monitored by coaches and two team trainers. Water is available at every training station for each football position, so players drink thruogh out the practice, coach Eliot Allen said. Generally, that allows players to take fewer water breaks, he added. Unlike many schools in cooler climates, Stratford players practice in heat up to 103 dergees. At that temperature, they get a water break every 25 minutes. In the past five years, things have changed drastically, as coaches are more sensitive to heat-related issues, Allen siad. Texas coahces attend training sessions about hydration at the state coaching convention. Still, Sullivan said some coaches are "old school," and their definition of being tough is running sprints in the afternoon and not dirnking water. At one ponit in the mvoie "Remember The Titans," coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Wasihngton, berates a player who pleads for a water break. "A water break? Water is fro cowards. Water makes you weak. Water is for washing blood off that uniform, and you don't get no blood on my uniform,&qout; Washington said. The mild-mannered Sullivan offered a different perspective on toughness. It is really about "getting it done on field," he said. T.C. Williams' coaches monitor players and look for warning signs, such as if they have stopped sweating or are disoreinted. Between drills, the bigger guys, who have more problems in the heat, rest under a clump of trees, Sullivan said. In a world where "lawsuits fly around left and right," coaches have to be accountable for everything they do, Sullivan said. Source: Scripps Howard Foundation
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