High school athletic facilities are typically flooded with athletes each day after school.
But that was not the case at North Montgomery last week.
As heat sizzled from the asphalt on the Charger tennis courts and little air moved across the Bratton Fields on the west end of the school’s campus — there were no whistles to be heard and no balls to be seen.
Extreme temperatures had canceled all outdoor activities and moved practices inside.
From 1995-2020 — 51 high school football players died in the United States from heat stroke.
And in the last decade the National Athletic Trainers Association have released a study revealing that heat stroke is one of the top-5 preventable deaths in youth sports.
The misconception is that air temperature is the driving factor in whether it’s safe to participate in strenuous activity or not.
And while it’s a key component, there’s much more to it.
Enter WBGT.
The United States military has been using wet bulb globe temperature readings since the mid 1950s, but only recently have high schools across the country taken advantage of the technology and research has been done to pinpoint accurate parameters for athletes to physically exert themselves when WBGT temperatures rise.
North Montgomery athletic trainer Isaac Hook can remember the days when he would call into the weather service to find out the heat index to decide if it was safe for the Charger fall teams to practice on a hot and muggy August afternoon.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association supplies their membership schools with a heat index chart, but that is their only guidance.
Luckily, schools in Montgomery County and all high schools across the state that fall under the Franciscan Health umbrella have adopted national policies and guidelines to adhere by based on the wet bulb globe temperature that is read by a Kestrel Heat Stress Tracker. The technology is not new to athletic trainers in Montgomery County, but for the first time this school year was provided to each school by Franciscan Health.
“With anything else in society, everything is always evolving mostly for the better,” Crawfordsville athletic trainer Doug Horton said. “So there’s been able to be more research and the technology has improved and constantly changed. Heat stroke is 100% preventable, so if we can prevent someone from even having a heat stroke, it’s a lot better than trying to treat it. And so that’s just one step we can take is monitoring the heat and trying to prevent someone from even getting into that situation.”
The WBGT temperature measures humidity, actual air temperature, the wind speed and solar radiation. The solar radiation is one of the key components in helping understand how much athletes’ bodies can handle before being put at risk for a heat related illness.
Hook, who has been at North Montgomery since 2005, says he’s seen a decrease in heat related injuries since they started monitoring WBGT closely.
“100% there’s been a decrease in kids showing signs of heat related illnesses,” he said. “From heat cramps to heat exhaustion to heat stroke. The education we’ve done with the coaches and student athletes about the importance of the prevention of those heat related illnesses and injuries has made a difference.”
At the national level, research was conducted on the acclimatization of athletes to extreme temperatures based on where they were geographically located and they established three different zones.
Indiana is located in the second zone — meaning athletics can operate normally as long as the WBGT stays at 79.7 degrees or below. Between 79-9-84.6 degrees (orange), athletes are suggested to use discretion for intense or prolonged exercise and three separate rest breaks at least four minutes long are provided each hour. The next level is orange and is 84.7-87.6 degrees and limits practice time to two hours, with four water breaks at four minutes each. Between 87.8-89.6 degrees (red) — maximum practice time is one hour and an accumulative break of 20 minutes throughout the hour. And anything at 89.9 degrees (black) or higher, outdoor activities are prohibited.
The restrictions are even tighter for football. In the orange zone, football players are restricted to helmet, shoulder pads, and shorts during practice, while under the red — no protective equipment of any kind may be worn to practice in.
This puts an added pressure on both the athletic trainers and coaches. At North Montgomery, Hook starts taking WBGT readings early in the day, so coaches have ample time to prepare and adjust their practice plans.
“We sit down and we plan our practices like this week we had pretty much everything planned out on Sunday for what we thought we would do for the week,” North Montgomery football coach Josh Thompson said. “Sometimes we have to adjust, and when we have restrictions we stay within those restrictions and coach Hook is really good about communicating with us. He goes out early, starts giving us preliminary readings so we are ahead of the game and it’s not last minute.”
Hook also says he collaborates with North Montgomery athletic director Matt Merica throughout the day on the scheduled events for the evening.
“Myself and Matt Merica start looking at what events are happening that day and discuss moving start times,” Hook said.
On Wednesday, North Montgomery canceled its tennis match with Warren Central due to the heat, while Thursday morning Crawfordsville’s cross country and football teams practiced in the morning before school to beat the heat.
An added element on Crawfordsville’s campus, which sits on the southwest side of Crawfordsville, is the different readings Horton can get depending on where he’s at.
“It’s very site specific,” he said. “I typically take four different readings just on the high school campus alone. Football practice field, turf field, tennis courts, soccer practice field. Because each one has different variables as far as the surface and actually how much wind you can feel on that field.
“There are times where I’ve had to tell coaches that tennis and turf are off limits right now, but soccer and football fields are okay to practice on.”
It may not seem important to some or even unnecessary to others — but the alternative is not something any athlete should ever have to face.
The bottom line is it’s protecting athletes from the unknown and ultimately saving lives.
