Mid-Missouri heatwave affects sports, causing delays or cancelations
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Sports programs in Columbia continue to push heat safety protocols during the latest Mid-Missouri heatwave.
This comes after a 20-year-old football player at William Jewell College died after scoring a touchdown on Saturday. MicahJo Barnett's was on the sidelines when he had a medical emergency, and the cause of his death is still being investigated.
Since it's been so hot lately, ABC 17 News looked into how local sports programs are keeping their athletes safe. The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather team is tracking heat index values more than 100 degrees.
To make sure students are staying safe in the extreme heat, Columbia College head athletic trainer Ryan Novatny said he and his team will be monitoring the heat index values of the turf field with a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature tool.
"It gives us a number that essentially calculates the amount of heat stress on the human body. There are different tiers and different thresholds that, when these are reached, we have to modify our outdoor activity," Novatny said.
When the reading is below 82 degrees, there are no changes to the activity. When it's between 82-86.9 degrees, coaches and athletic trainers watch higher-risk players and stay mindful of the heat.
The soccer field closes to unsupervised use, like regular student use, when the field temperature is higher than 82.
Temperatures above that require modifications to the activity. Readings between 87-89.9 degrees require outside practice to be shortened to two hours, with four water breaks lasting four minutes. Temperatures between 90-92 shorten practice to an hour long with the same number and duration of water breaks. Anything above 92 cancels practice.
Battle High School has a similar practice for deciding whether to cancel or prolong outside activities.
"Our coaches do a really good job of actually following those all summer long. We had a few incidents this summer where we had to just cancel practice because it was just too hot," BHS assistant principal of athletics and activities Sammie Symonds said.
She said she has been reflecting on what happened over the weekend with Barnett.
"When you hear something in the news, it does make it seem like…OK, are we doing everything we can? And then you want to double-check everything that you're doing, but I am thankful that our training staff is amazing," Symonds said.
Symonds also said she spent much of Monday working to shift BHS sporting events back an hour, hopefully getting out of the dangerous heat zone.
"I've pretty much pushed back almost everything this week so far at 6 p.m. I'm hoping that we will be in the yellow or green by then for most of our games, but that's basically what I spent my whole day doing," Symonds said.
She also mentioned that other high schools have communicated that they plan to do the same. North Callaway High School told ABC 17 News that its varsity softball game on Monday night was pushed back an hour because of the heat.
Spectators watching from the stands, stadium or on the sidelines could also be subject to heat illness.
President of the Missouri Athletic Trainers Association Jay Hoffman said the best way to avoid heat illness, for anyone, is to hydrate before going out in the heat and getting used to the heat by increasingly spending more time outside.
"It's not always easy us that if we have work inside or in office buildings or often times find ourselves in air-conditioned environments, but if you can, incrementally increase the amount of time that you're spending outdoors," Hoffman said.
He also suggested wearing big hats, sunglasses, appropriate clothing and taking breaks in the shade when needed.
