At the Cross Train Sports Camp, students take a rest between football drills
At the Cross Train Sports Camp, students take a rest between football drills
With temperatures expected to flirt with triple digits this week, youth coaches are keeping a close eye on the thermometer with a long summer ahead of them.
Cross Train Sports Camp kicked off a week of training for young athletes ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. The few dozen boys interested in football will train throughout the week with Gibbs High School football coach Brad Conley.
"Where we're out there in the open, there's not a lot of places to go for them to get out of the shade. We're going to take our coolers just like it's football practice, and we're going to have coolers and water bottles, and the kids are going to be able to access water whenever they want," said Conley.
His football team will begin practice for the high school season in just a few weeks. With a hot summer ahead, he encourages his players to start hydrating.
"As we think about the mid to latter part of July when we will be practicing football, we're already talking to them about hydrating," he said. "It's not a short-term thing, but it's a long-term thing."
In recent years, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association's (TSSAA) implemented a new heat policy for student athletes. If the heat index 105 degrees, or greater, practice is over. If it is 104 degrees or below, athletes must be allowed to change into dry clothes, reduce time outside, and take mandatory water breaks every 30 minutes. Water must always be kept on hand regardless of the heat index.
Conley says the policy enforces habits he already practiced with his team.
"We're not doing a ton of things different," he said. "The big thing that we've started doing is trying to prepare our kids for what's out there in front of them."
With the season still several weeks away, Conley looks forward to working with the younger kids at Cross Train.
"[It's] primarily a lot of kids who are going to have a lot of fun this week and get to interact with some people who really want to show an interest in them."