All Kansas City-area schools delay football games amid extreme wave
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s the first week of high school football on the Missouri side, and games are already being delayed.
Dozens of Kansas City-area high school football games have been pushed back Friday night to avoid the dangerous temperatures.
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Here are game changes announced as of Friday morning:
Oak Park at Winnetoka — 8 p.m.
Hickman at North Kansas City — 8 p.m.
Raymore-Peculiar at Rockhurst — 8 p.m.
Lee’s Summit West at Liberty — 8:30 p.m.
Blue Springs South at Lee’s Summit — 8:30 p.m.
Staley at Blue Springs — 8:30 p.m.
Liberty North at Lee’s Summit North — 8:30 p.m.
Battle at Park Hill — 8 p.m.
Park Hill South at Rock Bridge — 8 p.m.
Fort Osage at Grain Valley — 8 p.m.
Belton at Excelsior Springs — 8 p.m.
Grandview at William Chrisman — 8 p.m.
Smithville at Raytown — 8 p.m.
Raytown South at Truman — 8 p.m.
Platte County at Kearney — 8 p.m.
Capital City at Warrensburg — 8 p.m.
Cameron at Lincoln Prep — 8 p.m.
Lawson at Oak Grove — 8 p.m.
St. Joe Central at Ruskin — 8 p.m.
St. Joe Lafayette at Center — 8 p.m.
Southern Boone at Odessa — 8 p.m.
Boonville at Pleasant Hill — 8 p.m.
Chillicothe at Marshall — 8 p.m.
Northeast at St. Joe Benton — 8 p.m.
St. Pius at Pembroke Hill — 8 p.m.
St. Michael at Summit Christian — 8 p.m.
Lathrop at Lexington — 8 p.m.
Lafayette County at Penney — 8 p.m.
Sherwood at Holden — 8 p.m.
Knob Noster at Versailles — 8 p.m.
West Platte at Polo — 8 p.m.
Lawson at Oak Grove — 8 p.m.
North Platte at Galltin — 8 p.m.
Carrollton at Fayette — 8 p.m.
Harrisonville at MICDS — 10 a.m. Saturday
Richmond at New Madrid — 1 p.m. Saturday
Southeast at University Academy — 1 p.m. Saturday
For the Lee’s Summit School District, deciding whether or not their student athletes can play, or practice is fairly scientific.
“We’ve been charting almost every hour on the hour, regarding heat indices, regarding the wet bulb globe thermometer,” District Director of Athletics Kirk Hipple said in an interview with FOX4 Thursday.
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That thermometer he mentioned is an indicator of heat related stress on the human body at work or at play in direct sunlight, according to the National Weather Service. The wet bulb globe thermometer takes into effect temperature, wind speed, cloud cover, and humidity. When a reading gets to 92 or above, an activity’s called off.
“In our readings this week, when we’ve gotten to the 7 o’clock time, they’ve been in the upper 80’s on our wet bulb globe thermometer readings, so that’s why we felt a 7 o’clock time to allow our times to go out and warm up was a good time for our kids,” Hipple said when asked why the district came to a decision on 8:30 kickoff times for Friday night.
Kansas high school football doesn’t start until Friday, Sept. 1 for most schools.
The Heartland Soccer Association just announced that they will not play matches Friday. Parents were upset with them after kids played Saturday for instance for part of the day at the Scheels Overland Park Soccer Complex. Soccer coach Ryan Taitt says he did not know about that controversy though.
“Soccer’s been good. We’ve only had one practice, so we canceled practice last week or just this week I should say,” Taitt said.
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“Probably not, no,” he said when asked whether he would have wanted his kids playing in the heat Saturday, Aug. 19 and Sunday, Aug. 20.
Wednesday night, Heartland leaders adopted new guidelines for whether they’ll play in the heat. When the reading from that same wet bulb globe thermometer is more than 92 degrees, games are either suspended or canceled, according to their website.
The National Weather Service extended the Excessive Heat Warning until 9 p.m. Friday for the Kansas City area. The region has seen temperatures in the upper-90s and heat indexes between 110-120 degrees.
Experts encourage anyone who has to be outside to drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks in the shade or air conditioning. Experts also recommend wearing light-colored and loose-fitting clothing.
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Thankfully there is some relief in sight. The FOX4 Weather Team is tracking a cold front of sorts coming through the Midwest this weekend. It will bring temperatures down to the 80s and the heat index down to the low 90s. Clouds and some rain chances will also be around Sunday.
FOX4 will update this list if others are announced.
