Athletic trainer details risks of playing outdoor sports during extreme heat

OAKWOOD — Thursday is expected to be the hottest day of the year, but Friday night football is right around the corner.

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Kettering Health Athletic Trainer at Oakwood City Schools Katie Martin explains how student-athletes can keep themselves safe on the fields during extreme heat.

“The biggest thing to do is prevention of the stuff that you do before you get out here,” Martin said. “Staying hydrated, eating well-balanced meals throughout the day. Getting a good night’s sleep, making sure that you’re doing all those things that you should be doing on an everyday basis to stay healthy.”

Martin said athletic trainers have a range of temperatures that work as a guideline to know how many hours athletes should practice and how many water breaks they should take.

“So OHSAA, the Ohio High School Athletic Association, recently updated their handbook to include information on Wet Bulb Globe temperatures. So, what we do is monitor that with a Wet Bulb Globe thermometer,” Martin said.

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One of the biggest things athletic trainers watch for is external heat exhaustion, therefore they can tell if an athlete is overheating.

“The athletes will usually report symptoms like headache, dizziness, nausea, and then exertional heat stroke is the more serious condition that we look for and you can see like changes in their mental status becoming really apathetic or becoming you know combative,” Martin said.

Martin said the Wet Bulb Globe temperature must read 89.8 degrees Fahrenheit to cancel a football game.

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“If you’re below that [temperature], and in what we call the red zone, then you’re still restricted to only doing an hour of activity. So, I know a lot of places have already made decisions this week to push practices back to later start times and start games later,” Martin said.

Martin reminds athletes who practice or play outdoors to wear sunscreen, especially if they’re already sunburnt or have a skin condition.

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