High School Football Player Dies in Georgia of Heat Stroke

[RamboLiberal]

I remember discussion on a earlier thread about this danger. Snipped out appropriate paragraphs.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/sports/highschool/stories/0802rockdale.html

Wind sprints, maybe some pass patterns — a bit of final conditioning before football practices started for real Wednesday.

Tyler Davis, a 15-year-old Rockdale County football player, collapsed between 5 and 6 p.m. on his way to the locker room after practicing Monday.

He died early Tuesday at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. The cause of death was heat stroke, according to Dr. Stephen Boyle, the Rockdale County coroner.

Ginn said Rockdale's practice Monday consisted of passing drills, and the players weren't wearing football pads. He said the county will investigate the death and the school's policies of practicing in heat. Highs Monday were in the mid-90s.

According to Georgia High School Association rules, teams can start mandatory football practices in shorts today, nearly two weeks later than when practices started last year. The GHSA moved back the start of the season, and the opening of fall practices, because of heat concerns, said GHSA assistant executive director Gary Phillips.

[Fountain79]

1. I remember in high school during two-a-days...

The coaches stressed how important it was to get water and take care of yourself. This is sad...

[ixion]

6. yep... water and salt tablets were the order of the day back then

I feel bad for the poor kids' family. :-(

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Back where I went to high school...

...we had one player who died of shock when he came in from an especially heated practice and just turned on the cold water to cool off. May have had a genetic heart problem, but I don't remember the details.

[Fountain79]

13. We had one kid's heart go into vapor lock...

because he had dehydrated himself using a hot tub between practices.

[AngryAmish]

15. My coaches in grade school would not give us water

They said it caused cramps. If you made a good play they would spray water in our faces.

During 2 a days lots of kids would pass out. Hypervenilation was common.

I have no idea how we survived. Thank god they know better nowadays.

[rsdsharp]

19. Yeah, I played high school ball back when they told you

water made you weak. We did have salt tablets, though. We'd take a couple of those and drink a bunch of water before practice. We were generally allowed to drink from the sprinklers at the end of practice -- just before wind sprints. Most guys would fill their helmets and empty them before the water drained out of the ventilation holes.

[Ezlivin]

2. Damn. How the hell did slaves ever survive in the South?

When I see a story like this one, I wonder how the men and women who were slaves managed to survive. The 15 year old ostensibly would be in better shape and have much better access to medical assistance. I'm sure his coach encouraged him and the other players to "hydrate" themselves. Yet still he perished in the heat.

Those who were bound into slavery must indeed been made of some stern stuff.

[sabbat hunter]

3. probably because

slave owners wouldnt want to work their slaves to death for the most part. complete loss of investment. wasnt like there was slave insurance. if a slave owner started having slaves drop dead on him, what good would that have done him. beat them, work them NEARLY to death for sure.

[Kagemusha]

4. That and the weak ones simply died and made way for stronger genes.

At least that's what I'd assume.

[Debau2005]

9. I would imagine that the slaves

were much better physically conditioned then most of the kids these days. This player was 6 feet and 300 lbs according to the article.

[LisaM]

12. There wasn't a hole in the ozone layer, either

Heat is different now. Even from when I was a kid.

[napi21]

14. I think it also has a lot to do with how we grow up today.

I'm 62, and we didn't have A/C in our house until I was 45 and finally bought one with A/C. When I think about that now, I wonder how in the world we survived? I honestly don't think I could today!

How do people survive in the ME? Temps during the summer are 115-125F!!!! y son was on a navy ship during Gulf War I and he told me it's normal to have tems in the 120's. Another friend was in the Navy then but served on the sand in Kuwait. Temps were 125F! How does any human survive that?

I have no idea about the ME, but I really think our bodies have adapted with A/C and aren't capable of handling these rare extremes!

[SheilaT]

18. Excellent point.

A cousin of mine has worked in Africa for a number of years, and has told me it's much easier to deal with hot weather when you don't have air conditioning. And he'd be absolutely right, so long as your dwelling has windows that open and can get occasional breezes.

One problem is that for the last fifty years or so most homes have been built with air-conditioning, and there's not as much attention paid to cross-ventilation, or ceilings high enough for hot air to move up to.

I do agree that to some extent we've adapted to A/C.

Often when young athletes die, it turns out they had some sort of genetic anomaly that was undiscovered until the autopsy. Doesn't make it any less tragic and sad. And I believe that in recent years at least one or two h.s. kids die during summer football practice. Maybe more, because those are mostly local stories, and rarely get national coverage of any kind.

[napi21]

23. Last year 2 HS students died here in North Ga. at 2 different schools.

I remember one was a soccer player and female, the other was male and I can't remember the sport for sure, but I think it was basketball! It wasn't heat stroke!

I bbelieve in both cases, they found some hysical abnormality by doing the autopsy.

I suspect this particular kind of think has always happene, but most of us never heard about them because we didn't have the internet, 24/7 cable and the 30 Min nightly news just couldn't carry everything!

[Posteritatis]

16. They weren't.

Life expectancies of manual-labour slaves were pretty short, if I recall - closer to years than decades. I've heard figures of around 5-10 years in various regions and various time periods; I'm not sure how well those would map to slaves in the American South, but have my suspicions.

On the other hand, someone whose entire life involved manual labour in an equatorial country would probably be better adapted to it than us AC-afflicted wusses. It's the same sort of thing as me dying in 80F-but-feels-like-105-with-humidity temperature up here in Halifax; it plenty sucks for me, but I'm sure someone from Gabon - or, hell, Birmingham - would laugh in my face over it.

(Then I'd invite 'em up to Nova Scotia in February.)

[Purveyor]

5. Our local TV station did a report yesterday

on 'unofficial' football practice taking place around the area. 'Unofficial' practice means that it can't be organized by the school and no adults are supervising.

Our temps hit 99 with a heat index of 110.

I'm not surprised by these reports and think it is lunacy to have practice in these conditions.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Ah, yes. How nice that we will sacrifice our children for almighty sports.

I don't care how many have to die, football is important!!!!!! The games MUST GO ON!! And we MUST BE ABLE TO WIN!!!!

[calico1]

8. The temperatures we've been having in much

of the country do not amount to "normal" summer weather. When I stepped outside today it felt the same way you do if you are baking something and open the oven door and the heat just hits you. Why are they have sports practices on days like this? They are telling people on the news here to stay indoors, don't go out running, etc. Yet they have kids practicing sports!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. I say we ban football so this will never happen again.

[RamboLiberal]

21. Wouldn't it make more sense to move the season back

a month? At least below the Mason/Dixon line. Most regular HS seasons wrap up by early Nov. What would be the problem in warmer areas of going to Dec? Football is a game meant to be played in cooler weather.

And most HS these days have lighted stadiums - hold the practice late evening. Would still be hot but you wouldn't have the sun beating down on you.

[guinivere]

17. Very, very sad.

Why the hell is it necessary to sacrifice kids to football. Why don't the adults in charge use their damn heads.

[0007]

20. Doesn't this happen most every summer on every level

high school college and the pros?

[RamboLiberal]

22. Yes it does - it's rare for a pro to die

but every year some college or HS players are certain to collapse and die in the heat.