L.A. school district facing heat from football coaches
Local football coaches are criticizing the Los Angeles Unified School District for the way it reacted to Southern California’s recent record-breaking heat wave.
As temperatures soared last week, spiking at 103 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, the LAUSD cancelled all outdoor sports activities on Monday. There were no practices scheduled on Tuesday because of a professional development day, so Wednesday was set to be the first real practice of the week.
But at 3:12 p.m. that day, another notice came through. All outdoor activities were again cancelled, from boy’s waterpolo, girl’s tennis, and girl’s golf matches to elementary after-school activities.
The loudest complaints came from the football coaches, who said heading into the weekend’s games without sufficient practice created health concerns of another kind. It also created a disadvantage for any schools facing private schools, which hadn't heeded the heat warnings.
The district’s athletics coordinator, Trent Cornelius, tells Yahoo Sports he tried to get permission for teams to practice at night, but was ultimately denied. He instead recommended teams practice inside.
For the Canoga Park football team, that meant practicing in even hotter conditions, as the gym did not have air conditioning, according to the Los Angeles Times. A girl’s volleyball coach from another school faced the same situation. He called Cornelius for advice, and Cornelius advised him not to hold practice. The top priority was the health of the students, he reiterated. When the district recommended practicing indoors, it was under the assumption that gyms were air-conditioned, as most are.
Cornelius added that the district considered canceling the football games because of the lack of practice, but decided not to because there is such limited opportunity to reschedule them.
Despite the coaches' complaints, players and parents told the Times that it supported the district's decision. This summer, a high school football player in Staten Island, N.Y., died during a workout session on one of the hottest and most humid days of the year. This happens every season, at every level.
No team wants to lose a game, but with temperatures hitting 103 degrees and higher-than-normal humidity levels, it seems LAUSD made the right choice in erring on the side of safety.
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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or follow her on Twitter!
