Dehydration and heat illness is one of the most preventable sports injuries, but if not prevented, it can sideline an athlete for a game or even end a career. With the most recent incident involving Altoona football standout Shawn Shannon, who was life-flighted during a Monday afternoon practice after fainting, athletes need to take steps to reduce the potential for dehydration and heat injury by making sure they are properly prepared for training and competing in the heat.
To reduce such injury, athletes should adjust to exercising in the heat by practicing at moderate exercise intensity for five to fifteen days in the heat. This process will allow an athlete’s body to cool more efficiently by increasing sweat production sooner than when not adapted.
Some of the warning signs of dehydration are acute signs: Nausea, poor concentration, light-headedness, irritability and unusual fatigue. Chronic signs include: Loss of appetite, dark yellow urine, little or no urination and frequent muscle cramps.
Proper hydration is the best safeguard against heat related illnesses. Athletes should drink over 20 cups of fluid each day during intense training in warm and humid environments. Avoiding caffeinated and carbonated beverages also helps prevent dehydration. An athlete likewise should eat a high carbohydrate food to replenish muscle glycogen stores.
Due to the extreme heat conditions the Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis football coaches and athletic trainers are watching their players very closely. Both schools have professional trainers from Joyner Sportsmedicine that work with each team, and provide ample education and training to produce the safest environment for the athletes of Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis, which is especially needed during the early stages of football season when the heat is still a factor.
Mike Zalno, Tyrone Area High School athletic trainer, representing Joyner Sports Medicine, said that coach John Franco was preaching to the players to drink 64 ounces of Gatorade as they came into conditioning camp everyday. Since then, the Tyrone football team have gone through about 50 gallons of Gatorade a day, and likely will continue.
“Be hydrated before you come here and keep hydrated while you’re here,” said Zalno. “This year we have Gatorade bottles out for every player. They fill up in the morning and it’s out there while they’re practicing. Now we always have three coolers of water on the field to keep the players bottles full during morning and afternoon sessions.”
“We give them a break halfway through the morning so they can come in the locker room where Gatorade is available,” Zalno added. “Anytime someone feels they need a drink, they can grab a bottle to drink. When we go to the Bull Pen for lunch, there’s two jugs of Gatorade and water available, along with foods that aren’t greasy, which in turn provides a nutritionally balanced meal.”
Coach Franco and staff, along with Zalno, are watching the kids closely. During the afternoon special teams session, the team wears shorts and shoulder pads to dress for the heat properly, and even allowing the kids to take off their helmets if needed when it is extremely hot.
Coach Franco has even showed a video sent by Gatorade to him, along with many other coaches, that discussed dehydration and how to keep yourself hydrated. The players know the importance of hydration because it has been preached to them by Franco, Zalno, and the rest of the coaching staff.
“We’re taking precautions and when a kid says he’s not feeling well,” said Zalno. “We take him out just in case. We have fans, iced towels and plenty of fluids to help prevent dehydration. Myself and the coaching staff are available for the kids all the time.”
Coach John Hayes and the Bellwood-Antis football team are likewise keeping a close eye on the dehydration issue, thanks to a large role played by Joyner Sportsmedicine athletic trainer, David Showalter.
One of the main things Bellwood-Antis did was before the season started the coaching staff and Showalter made sure that players could pass a fitness test and were clear of supplements like ephedra and creatine. The preseason workouts are very important to acclimate the athletes to the heat.
“In season we’re taking regular water breaks as a team and getting the players in the shade,” said Showalter. “We have a ‘cool zone’ machine that sprays iced water out in a mist, along withna hose to cool kids down.” He added, “We want to keep them cool and since we’re splitting practices up to three-a-days, the players have plenty of rest and time between practices to get the gas tank filled again.”
Showalter said that one of the most important things to prevent dehydration is what the athletes drink at night and in the morning, because many of the players could come into practice already dehydrated due to not properly fueling their bodies prior to workouts in the heat the next day. He added that when the body becomes dehydrated, performances and attention drops.
“One of the body’s cooling systems is actually when the water and sweat evaporates from the skin and then cools down the body,” Showalter added. “When the humidity is up, the sweat doesn’t evaporate and you lose that form of cooling down.
“Galen Claar (equipment manager) is doing a great job providing the Gatorade and coach Hayes is likewise doing a great job with giving the players sufficient breaks,” said Showalter. “We have ten to fifteen minute Gatorade breaks every practice and that’s on top of scheduled breaks. We’re definitely replacing the electrolytes and keeping the kids well hydrated.”
Showalter added that they are also providing ice buckets full of water with sponges to help cool the kids down. Bellwood-Antis afternoon special teams sessions wear shorts and shoulder pads to properly dress the players for the hot weather. He noted that they haven’t had any problems yet with dehydration among the athletes at Bellwood.
Dehydration and heat illness is a serious issue and it’s good to know that our Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis football teams are taking the necessary precautions to help prevent an extreme incident, or any incident at all for that matter. Everyone wants to see two healthy football teams compete come August 30th.
