School has just started, sports have been in action all summer, and the weather is as hot as ever. The recent heat related death of a Tennessee high school football player has brought even more precaution to the practice fields.

“I have always implemented water being available to the players at all times,” said the schools athletic trainer, T.J. Marsh, during football practice, “It adds practice time and helps keep the kids more hydrated”.

Marsh is in charge of injury prevention and taking care of injuries that occur for every sport at the high school. During this time of year, one of her most important jobs is checking the heat index outside to determine what kind of practice the team should have that day or if they should even practice at all.

The heat index is based on the outside temperature, wind, and humidity. It is calculated by an equation that figures out how hot it feels outside. Just because a thermometer says it is a certain temperature outside that does not mean that is what the air feels like.

To be able to practice at all the heat index must be 104 degrees or less. If it is 105 or higher, the team cannot participate in outside workouts at all.

“A lot of it has to due with the sun being behind clouds,” explained Marsh, “depending on the humidity, the cloud cover could make the index drop six degrees”.

She explained that the lack of rain in Cadiz has really saved the football team because with the temperature being so hot, any more humidity in the air would cause the heat index to sky-rocket past the legal limit.

“The humidity has been less than 35 percent recently,” informed Marsh, “you want it to be either hot and dry or damp and breezy. The heat index will stay low enough to practice under those conditions.”

For the rest of this story, read this week's Cadiz Record.