One day after eight north Fulton County high school students were treated for heat exhaustion during band practice, reports of area high school football players suffering from the excessive heat have surfaced as well.
Three East Coweta High School football players were taken to Fayette Community Hospital for heat exhaustion Wednesday night, schools spokesman Dean Jackson confirmed to the AJC.
One of the players was released that night and two others were kept for at least a day, he said.
A Northgate High School student was taken to an area hospital earlier this week to be treated. Jackson said the student plays baseball in the spring, but he was unsure which fall sport he participates in.
The AJC started contacting school districts and area hospitals after receiving a report from a parent of an East Coweta football player Thursday night. The parent reported that six East Coweta players were treated for heat exhaustion on Wednesday night as well as players from Northgate High and Forest Park High School in Clayton County.
A spokesman for Clayton County schools told the AJC that no student athletes from Forest Park or any other county high schools were taken to hospitals during or after practice because of heat-related problems.
“We have hot weather procedures that are in place,” Evan Horton, athletic director for East Coweta High told the AJC.
The school also has a certified athletic trainer who “drives the boat,” Horton said.
“When it comes to kids’ health, when it comes to hot weather, he follows hot weather practice to a ‘T,’” he said.
Horton didn’t know specifically why three of the school’s football players were taken to the hospital for heat problems Wednesday night and stands behind the policies that East Coweta has in place.
“I feel very satisfied that all of our people did exactly what they are supposed to do,” he said.
Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center said they had no reports of student athletes coming there for heat-related illnesses this week.
Besides the 90-plus degree weather and stifling humidity, this has been the first full week of practice for Georgia high school football players. GHSA rules prohibit football practice from starting before Aug. 1, but high schools may run voluntary conditioning during the summer to get students used to practicing and playing in the heat.
GHSA rules spell out guidelines for the first week of practice. Players cannot wear full pads and contact gear for a least two of the days; they can wear only shorts, helmets, shoulder pads, mouthpieces and shoes.
There’s a separate section for practicing in the heat and humidity. It requires each school or school system to have a written policy for practicing in the heat. That policy must be given to each player, GHSA spokesman Steve Figueroa said.
East Coweta high has been running practices twice a day, starting the first around 2:30 p.m. and then holding an evening session at 7 p.m., Horton said.
The players break for more than an hour between those sessions to eat, drink water and rest in the air-conditioning, he said.
Coweta schools spokesman Dean Jackson said athletes are required to take five-minute water breaks every 10, 15 or 20 minutes, depending upon the heat index on the field. The higher the heat index, the more frequent the water breaks.
Horton said the athletes have been taking those water breaks every 10 minutes this week.
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