Coaches alter practice to beat heat
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 7, 2002
With temperature ranging from the low to upper 90s this time of year, and high schools starting football practice, everyone is trying to avoid heat related
injuries. Some local coaches are taking precautions to keep from having any heat related problems.
Dallas County head coach Tom Causey said preparing before two-a-days makes all the difference. And when he says prepare, he doesn’t mean just before practice.
Water, to Causey, is the only way to avoid heat-related injuries. But even water can’t help players who are out of shape.
In the United States ,175 to 200 people die from heat-related disorders every year.
The extreme heat in states like Alabama, Mississippi and Florida can make heat related problems even worse. When the humidity is extreme, it causes sweat not to evaporate from the body, and that can cause overheating to happen even more rapidly than normal.
Some of the symptoms to watch for this time of year are, fatigue and weakness, nausea and vomiting, headaches, dizziness, muscle cramps and irritability.
Heat exhaustion and heat stroke all contain most of the same symptoms, but the key factor is when a person quits sweating, and his body temperature rises to 106 degrees.