Football forced to go inside
Scorching temperatures have forced high school football teams to change their preseason schedules all over the state, and Warren County is no exception.
Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale issued a directive Thursday afternoon, prohibiting any outdoor school activities until Monday.
Hale said concern over the heat-related health risks to students and staff resulted in the decision to keep athletic teams and other student groups out of the heat.
‘We were concerned about the temperatures and the heat index,’ he explained. ‘Of course we think our students ‘ and coaches, for that matter ‘ are in good shape. But the risk of injury and illness is tremendous during this kind of weather. We just felt the risks (of working outdoors) outweighed the benefits.’
The high school football team was originally scheduled to have a scrimmage against East Ridge this evening, but those plans were scrapped by Wednesday and replaced by a Friday night practice at Nunley Stadium. After the latest school system directive, however, those plans were canceled as well.
Head coach Chris Madewell, whose team elected not to practice on Wednesday but originally planned to go out Thursday night, explained Chattanooga school officials mandated that football teams in its district practice without pads this week, meaning the East Ridge squad would not be allowed to participate in a full-contact scrimmage.
Once that decision was made, changes to the Pioneers’ practice schedule followed.
‘Part of the reason for canceling practice on Wednesday was because of the scrimmage getting canceled,’ he explained. ‘We were asked to go out without pads, but with the temperatures as high as they were, and without the scrimmage to prepare for, we decided it was best to just call off Wednesday’s practice.
After the school system’s order to halt all outside work until Monday, Madewell elected to move his team inside for Thursday and Friday’s practices.
‘We had moved (Thursday’s) and Friday’s practices to the game field, and pushed them back to later in the evening where it would hopefully be a little cooler and we can get some good work done,’ he said. ‘Now we’ll try to take them into the gym, if it’s available, and do what we can inside.’
Madewell noted working out in full gear as temperatures approached ‘ and passed ‘ the triple-digit mark showed their effects during practices earlier this week.
‘Monday was pretty tough on them, but on Tuesday we took the pads off for a while ‘ for about the first 40 minutes of practice, and then at the end when we did our conditioning ‘ and they responded really well,’ he said. ‘Even when they had the pads on, they were running hard, which convinced me we’re in much better shape than in years past, but there’s no reason to wear them out in that kind of heat.’
Across town at Warren County Middle, the Pioneers were kept out of pads on Wednesday, but still practiced in light gear during their normal time of 4-5 p.m.
Thursday night they were slated to travel to Franklin County, where the Central Tennessee Conference preseason jamboree was pushed back an hour to take advantage of somewhat cooler temperatures. However, the school system’s cancellation of outdoor activity forced the Pioneers to cancel that trip, as well as a trip to Cookeville for another jamboree which was scheduled for Saturday.
‘Not only can we not go to those jamborees, we can’t practice,’ said head coach Bill Harris. ‘We’re going to try to see if we can use the auxiliary gym at the high school (Friday). Of course, there’s not much of anything you can do in a gym.’
The WCMS campaign begins Aug. 21, at home against Cascade.