Conejo - Las Virgenes Sports Beat

Conejo - Las Virgenes Sports Beat

When area high school football teams begin practicing for the upcoming season, yesterday (Agoura), today (Thousand Oaks) and the first "official" day of practice, Mon., Aug. 20 (Newbury Park and Oak Park), there will be heightened awareness of watching players dealing with the heat.

The death of Korey Stringer, the well-liked All-Pro offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, as well as the recent fatality at Northwestern University of Rashidi Wheeler, a Southern California native who suffered from asthma, have made preseason training workouts and their intensity a topic of conversation.

"I think it’s something everybody should be concerned about right now," said Newbury Park Panther head coach George Hurley. "Every year you should be concerned, but particularly now."

Now that it’s the beginning of the hardest workouts in the warmest weather, coupled with the deaths of Stringer and Wheeler, it would be almost impossible not to be conscious of the heat and symptoms of players in distress.

But local coaches also said this isn’t something new.

The heat has always been a factor during two-a-day and even three-a-day August practices.

"I actually think it’s something that we always talk about," said Thousand Oaks head coach Mike Sanders who grew up and played high school ball in desert-like Tucson, Ariz.

"Being out here in the West in the heat, we practice early in the morning from 7 to 9 during double-days and then in the evenings like 5 to 8, so we’re kind of out of the heat of the day," Sanders added.

Hurley said the Panthers will practice in the morning the first several days of training camp and won’t have mid-day practices until the coaches feel the players are ready to deal with the heat.

"Later in the week when we’re in a little bit condition and we’ve had some idea of what kind of shape these kids are in, we will practice later in the afternoon, in the heat of the day," Hurley said.

Dick Billingsley, the head coach at Oak Park, agreed that dealing with heat-related issues early in the season happens every year.

"We’ve always been concerned about the heat with our kids," Billingsley said. "So we give two water breaks a practice and each position coach has the flexibility to give their kids a water break anytime during practice if they need it."

At Agoura, head coach Charlie Wegher and his staff don’t have two-a-day practices, preferring instead a long practice from 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon until around 7:30 at night.

"We pace it and give the kids a 10- or 15-minute break in the middle and they can have all the water they want."

But Wegher and all the coaches added that all of their players are free to get water whenever they feel it’s necessary.

"We have it available all the time and never put any restrictions on the water," Wegher said.

Hurley and Billingsley said that on days when the teams practice three times in one day, the middle practice is less for conditioning than the morning and evening practices. The Panther and Eagle coaches also said their players are weighed before the first practice and after the final practice each day to insure that no one has lost an inordinate amount of weight and hasn’t gained it back by the next morning.

Wegher said his players would do more running drills early in practice when legs are fresher.

Nowadays it’s common for high school coaches to advocate that players eat and drink right, especially when team members are working extra hard in the early season August heat.

"We try real hard to tell kids about good nutrition," Hurley said. "And also the concept of keeping your fluid levels up."

Said Sanders, "We tell them, ‘Eat a lot of fresh fruit and make sure you’re drinking water. What you drink tonight is what you’re going to play on tomorrow.’"

At Agoura, Wegher said he’s expanding beyond water this season. "This year we’re going to have some sports-drinks available." They’re better at replacing electrolytes, the Charger coach said.

Sometimes players need to be prodded to drink even if they aren’t thirsty, the coaches agreed.

"You’re thirst is not a completely accurate indicator of how much water you need," Wegher said.

Added Sanders, "Well have water breaks and there’ll be kids saying, ‘I’m not thirsty,’ and we tell our kids, ‘Go get water, anyway!’"

Although all players are permitted to get water whenever needed, Oaks Christian head coach Bill Redell said it’s necessary to make sure the players feel okay while getting fluids.

It’s not a sign of weakness, he said, to ask for a break or some water.

"As a coach you have to have an atmosphere where that’s acceptable behavior," Redell said, "where the player doesn’t push himself beyond the point that he should. Sometimes around the country the atmosphere that’s created is one where players don’t feel the freedom to be able to move to get a drink."

All the coaches said injuries and illnesses are the toughest aspects of football.

"We have a mandatory meeting with parents the second day of practice," Hurley said. "We tell parents, ‘Look, your kid can get hurt playing football, but here are the things we can do to make it better."

Eating and sleeping well, advising coaches and trainers about injuries—not hiding them––are things Hurley and his staff will emphasize to parents.

The coaches can sympathize with one another when a player is hurt and know how badly the Vikings’ head coach Dennis Green and Northwestern’s head coach Randy Walker must feel about the tragedies that befell their teams.

"Our coaching fraternity’s pretty tight, so you feel for those guys," Sanders said.

Said Billingsley, "It’s bad enough when you have a kid get seriously injured. All the work he’s put in and the effort, and the success he’s going to have."

Redell added, "I know Dennis Green very well and he’s a very good football coach. He would never intentionally put his players in a bad situation."