Record heat restricting practice routines for area high school teams

SEFFNER — A fifth-generation native of east Hillsborough County, Evan Davis has experienced the meteorological gamut in his 37 years, from hurricanes to high dew points, squalls to spaghetti models.

But never has the Armwood High football coach experienced the kind of heat that has hit the bay area this summer.

“The way I try to describe it to people is … our team went out to Bishop Gorman (a Las Vegas high school) in 2011, and when the doors opened at the airport, it felt like if your mom had put on the oven at 425 (degrees) and had just left the door open,” said Davis, then a Hawks assistant.

“It was just dry, hot heat. That’s what it feels like now; it’s that dry, hot heat. But you have the humidity we normally have in the state of Florida. I don’t ever remember it being this hot. I just don’t.”

As if Davis and his area high school coaching peers didn’t have enough responsibilities, the stretch of record heat has forced them to assume another role. In addition to serving as tutors and chauffeurs, motivators and mentors, pyschologists and even surrogate parents at various points, those coaching outdoor sports also have been forced to evolve into amateur meteorologists.

The suffocating heat and the standards put forth by the state’s prep sports governing body essentially require it. Throughout the bay area, football and cross-country teams — the most physically demanding fall sports that don’t include a swimming pool — have been forced to modify, or even reduce, the way they normally practice.

Hillsborough football coach Earl Garcia said his team has been limited to five complete outdoor practices since July 31. Reeves’ team begins its workouts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to avoid the most oppressive times of day. On the northern fringe of the North Suncoast, Crystal River football coach Cliff Lohrey has been holding practices before school, starting at 5:45 a.m.

“It’s been unbelievably hot,” said Springstead football coach Mike Garofano, who has had to increase water breaks and occasionally limit outdoor practice time. “This is my 27th year of coaching, period, and I don’t recall it ever being hotter than this right now, not even close. It’s been hot, but not the way it’s been for, like, going on three weeks now. ... It’s crazy.”

July was the hottest month in Tampa’s recorded history, with an 86.5-degree average temperature. Through Wednesday, the high temperature in Tampa had reached 96 degrees or higher 11 days in August, said WTVT-Ch. 13 chief meteorologist Paul Dellegatto.

And the U.S. drought monitor indicates that parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are experiencing severe drought conditions.

“Honestly, it’s flabbergasting,” Zephyrhills cross-country coach Matt Page said. “It’s exponentially hot, and kind of disgusting.”

Not to mention restrictive.

The Florida High School Athletic Association has guidelines that limit practice times or prohibit outdoor workouts based on heat-stress levels.

All Hillsborough County schools are furnished with wet bulb globe thermometers — a rectangular instrument roughly the size of a early-generation cellphone with a small black sphere affixed to the top — which measure the heat stress in direct sunlight, taking into account temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover.

The provision of the thermometers was part of a set of sweeping safety measures and protocols to prevent heat-related tragedies announced by the school district in 2020, on the one-year anniversary of the death of Middleton freshman football player Hezekiah B. Walters, who collapsed and died after a mid-June outdoor workout in 2019.

If the wet bulb reading is greater than 92.1, outdoor activities are prohibited, according to Florida High School Athletic Association parameters. Any reading between 90.1 and 92.0 limits teams to an hour outdoors with no protective equipment, no conditioning activities and a minimum of five separate four-minute rest breaks.

Anything between 87.1 and 90.0 allows a maximum two-hour outdoor workout and four separate four-minute breaks. Football teams are limited to helmets, shoulder pads and shorts under this reading. Restrictions continue to minimize as the readings diminish.

And in a sprawling county such as Hillsborough, readings can vary. Plant City High, for instance, could be forced indoors as Alonso, on the county’s opposite edge, is allowed a two-hour practice.

“It’s adjusted styles of practice,” said Davis, who graduated from Armwood in 2004. “When I was in school, and just seven or eight years ago, Monday we were in helmets, Tuesday we were in full pads, Wednesday we were in full pads, Thursday was a walk-through. Now the weather dictates how we practice.”

Page said his Zephyrhills cross-country team periodically has been forced to begin practice later. Running before school isn’t a practical option because classes begin at 7:06 a.m. When possible, he also has selected running courses around town that include shade and water fountains.

“It’s just making sure the routes have at least one or two fountains in case the kids get a little dehydrated,” he said. “Because some days, it just evaporates right out of your body.”

Such are the hazards in a summer of unforgiving, unrelenting and unprecedented heat.

“We’re spending less time outside,” Springstead’s Garofano said. “We’re having to give water breaks about every 15 to 20 minutes. And the kids, they’re good for about the first 30 minutes of practice, and you can tell the life is just sucked out of them after about 30 minutes.

“It’s been unbelievably hot.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.