Summer heat is serious concern as Austin-area high school football players prepare for season
Drew Sanders is old enough to remember when football players who begged for water during practice were labeled sissies.
Bear Bryant famously would not allow water breaks when he coached at Texas A&M from 1954-1957. That mentality was a staple of high school football in the state, too. One way to get tough was to fight through dehydration, coaches used to say.
Sanders, Vandegrift's head coach since 2010, got his first taste of Texas heat while playing at Mexia Middle School in 1988. Instead of water, coaches would give the players ice cubes. They weren't certain if that was punishment or a reward.
"You knew better than to ask for water," said Sanders, who went on to play at Mexia High School and Hardin-Simmons University. "I think people back then didn't know how vital water was."
Luckily, times have changed. While Austin has had more than 60 days of temperatures of 100 degrees or more this summer, the city also has had no measurable rainfall since June. In the meantime, high school and middle school football players are preparing for the season opener Aug. 25.
Coaches throughout Central Texas are taking the heat seriously. They no longer smirk when players take water breaks. Many begin practice before the sun rises to avoid the hottest part of the day.
"We are on the turf at 6:30 a.m. to combat the heat," Pflugerville coach Charles Taylor said. "We have scheduled water breaks, but we also have student trainers at every group encouraging players to constantly hydrate. Our district has heat guidelines that we follow. Our trainer instructs the kids to weigh before and after practice to track how much water was lost. Finally, a big part of what we ask to kids to do is hydrate away from practice at home."
Exertional heatstroke is the leading cause of preventable death in high school athletics, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Students participating in high-intensity, long-duration or repeated same-day sports practices and training activities during the summer months or other hot-weather days are at greatest risk.
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The University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high school sports in Texas, has taken measures to help with the matter. Here are a few mandatory guidelines for coaches to follow.
Only T-shirts, shorts, and helmets may be worn during the first two days of practice, and no contact activities are permitted.
On the third and fourth days, only one practice session is permitted and it can last up to three hours. Players can have a one-hour walk-through in addition to the practice with at least a two-hour break between the practice and walk-through.
Only helmets, shoulder pads, and football girdles are allowed. Person-to-person contact is allowed, but full contact is not allowed.
Westwood coach Anthony Wood says his school provides trainers to monitor all players and water breaks are provided throughout practice. Student trainers are stationed at every position group, he added.
Vandegrift's Sanders recalls teammates being "ridiculed" when they requested water breaks in Mexia.
"I remember running a mile and a half during two-a-days in full pads as punishment," Sanders said. "I'm glad that kind of mentality is a thing of the past and we now place more value on the safety of our players."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin-area high school football programs battle extreme Texas heat
