High school sports are a way of life for many across the United States. Football, for example, looms large in the US South, where it is not only a community gathering on Friday nights, but some argue it also aided in desegregation efforts during the civil rights movement.
According to the latest survey from the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than eight million young athletes across the country play sports. But with floods, wildfires, and hotter days on the horizon due to climate change, climate disasters are putting pressure on coaches, parents, and schools to protect millions of young athletes from climate hazards.
Heat Risk for Students
Heat is the most dangerous weather-related hazard in the United States. According to research from the nonprofit Climate Central, extremely hot days in the United States have been more common since 1970. That means young athletes today are playing sports in more dangerous temperatures than their parents and grandparents were.
Hotter days increase the risk of exertional heat stroke, one of the leading causes of death among high schoolers in sports. Despite these grim stakes, there’s no unifying body in the United States that mandates heat safety for student athletes, not to mention the countless sports leagues, extracurricular activities, and pick-up games that operate in gyms, basketball courts, soccer fields, and outside school districts, each with its own rules—or lack thereof.
Hotter days increase the risk of exertional heat stroke, one of the leading causes of death among high schoolers in sports.
In the absence of a national heat strategy, the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute—named for a young football player who died of heat stroke at training camp in Minnesota in 2001—has created a rubric to evaluate safety protocols of high school athletic associations. This rubric includes policies on heat, as well as the evaluation of research and state policies nationwide, to assess a state’s readiness for heat safety. While the organization has seen hundreds of policies implemented since its first annual ranking in 2017, Christianne Eason, an athletic trainer and researcher at the institute, says that often those policies are implemented when it’s too late.
“Sometimes what we see is that states tend to be more reactionary,” she told NPQ.
Kids have a harder time regulating heat than adults due to their developing bodies, and the potential risks ramp up in high school athletes when practices get longer and more intense. Games often happen right after school when the sun is still at its peak intensity, and practices for sports like football, track and field, and soccer can last at least two hours.
This prolonged exposure can lead to heat illness, which also puts people at higher risk of falling sick again in the future. And athletes who wear heavy equipment are particularly at risk. Football players, for example, wear several pounds of gear. Marching band members also wear heavy uniform materials and are exposed to the elements for just as long, if not longer, than players on sports teams.
Jessica Murfree, a professor of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focuses on disparities of health risks, which include socioeconomic status, where a student lives, their health history (as well as their families’), and access to medical care in case of an emergency. As Murfree told NPQ, “The disparity piece is a big can of worms in American football.” At the national level, according to the latest data, Black men make up 53 percent of all NFL players.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, high school and college football is the most fatal sport for young players. Data from 1998 to 2018 found that 97 percent of exertional heat stroke fatalities in high school and college football were of linemen. Typically some of the largest players on the team, linemen block opposing players and protect the quarterback from getting sacked, which makes their position even riskier by putting them on the front line.
How to Keep Kids Safe from Climate Instability
Jordan Clark, a climatologist in North Carolina who studies the impact of climate change on society, has laid out a policy playbook on how to keep young athletes safe, which includes acclimating them to practice after summer breaks and mandating breaks for water and sports drinks. Adults can play a role by asking coaches what safety plans are in place, including rules around water breaks and playing on hot days.
Kids have a harder time regulating heat than adults due to their developing bodies, and potential risks ramp up in high school athletes when practices get longer and more intense.
For outdoor sports, simply looking at the weather app isn’t sufficient to make a call on whether it’s too hot to play. The heat index, or the “feels like” temperature, measures temperature and humidity in the shade. Instead, Clark suggests teams take the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), which measures heat stress in direct sun, as well as wind speed, the angle of the sun, and cloud cover. According to the Korey Stringer Institute’s latest rankings, only 18 states and DC require their high school associations to provide a WBGT reading before practices.
But with wide disparities among school budgets, some teams can’t afford the needed device, which could start at $600. Clark suggests schools apply for grant funding for these meters. In North Carolina, he says that high schools were able to purchase the devices through a grant from the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Eason, of the Korey Stringer Institute, noted that it comes down to safety: “Sometimes I get frustrated with this conversation related to cost, because it comes down to a priority.”
Many sports programs, she adds, pay for transportation for athletes and referees to recertify equipment. This can lead some schools and organizations to prioritize facilities and equipment over safety.
Sign up for our free newsletters
Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.
Know the Signs of Heat Illness
Jack Rozier is a coach and operations director at California Magic Soccer Club. The Bay Area league serves more than 600 kids year-round ages 5 to 18. His organization uses the US Soccer Heat Guidelines to decide when to adjust practices and games.
Rozier’s been coaching for two decades and says anecdotally he’s seen more heat illnesses on the field. He also says it’s important for coaches to recognize symptoms, including nonverbal cues like a player being less coordinated and agile than usual, having glazed-over eyes, or having “Bambi” legs.
“I think one of the key factors is how well you know the player,” Rozier told NPQ, “because you can spot a lot of things before they tell you.”
Lauren Mahaney is the mother of two football players, a senior and a freshman, in Graham, TX. She’s also a board member of the Graham Independent School District.
When a child experiences a heat-related health emergency, cool first, transport second.
She says her sons’ high school encourages hydration through mandated water breaks and a hydration system on the field, which she describes as an ice cooler with eight coil hoses attached. Players can drink and douse water on themselves to stay cool.
When it comes to other recommendations—WBGT readings and acclimating athletes after long breaks—the district follows guidance from the state’s University Interscholastic League. Mahaney says as a parent, it’s comforting that there’s a standard across the state for all teams.
Plan to Protect Student Athletes
When a child experiences a heat-related health emergency, cool first, transport second. That means submerging the player in a tub of ice before rushing them off to the hospital. The ambulance won’t have ice, and precious time could be lost if a child’s temperature doesn’t come down.
Dennis Coonan is an athletic trainer and manager of the Sports Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado. While taking the temperature of a sick player, Coonan says best practice is having an athletic trainer or medical staff on site to conduct a rectal temperature, which can be done out of public view.
“It’s the only true way to determine if a kid is having a heat stroke and is in danger,” Coonan said. While he’s seen a lot of organizations, including school districts, oppose the measure, saying it’s an invasive procedure, Coonan emphasized the stakes: “We look at it as a life-saving procedure.”
A rectal temperature of above 104 degrees puts a child at immediate risk of death. Taking an oral or forehead temperature can be as much as five degrees lower. Adopting the protocol is mandatory if sports teams and districts want to partner with the Children’s Hospital Colorado.
“We’ve walked away from some districts that weren’t willing to,” said Coonan.
When it comes to young athletes, adults are the ones responsible for their safety and need to be in their corner. Eason, of the Korey Stringer Institute, emphasizes that proven policies to save lives already exist.
“Any time we see a case of an exertional heat stroke fatality, particularly in the high school setting,” she said, “it is devastating for us, because we know that that young person did not have to die.”
As climate change continues to impact weather and our relationship to being outside, parents, coaches, and schools must begin to put plans in place to protect young student athletes.
Helina Selemon and Jordan Gass-Pooré contributed research to this story.
This story about extreme heat is part of a reporting project supported by the Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting Grants funded by the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute.
