Football Practice Opens Across Oklahoma Amid Heat Concerns

Tuesday, August 8th 2006, 4:30 pm

By: News On 6

DEL CITY, Okla. (AP) -- The death of a student at nearby Douglass High School was on the mind of at least one Del City High School football player Tuesday as the team took to the field on the opening day of practices across Oklahoma.

Junior receiver Keno Meadows said he knew Chris Stewart, who died last August from hyperthermia due to heat exhaustion, and that Stewarts' death stands as a grim reminder about the importance of hydration on hot days.

"All you've got to do is drink water," Meadows said after the Eagles' first practice, a two-hour-plus morning session with temperatures in the low 90s. "Water is not like nasty medicine.

"Most people try to show that they don't have any weaknesses and go through practice without water, but that's stupid."

Oklahoma has dealt with a rash of heat-related deaths in recent weeks. The State Medical Examiner's office said 20 Oklahomans have died this year from heat stroke, 18 of those in the past month.

Kevin Rowland, the chief investigator for the medical examiner's office, said one additional death is being investigated as possibly heat related.

National Weather Service forecaster Daryl Williams said there might not be a break in the triple-digit heat until at least the weekend, and even then it won't cool off much.

"It's the same old story," Williams said. "We've got a high pressure ridge sitting above us, and until it moves one way or another, or we get bigger cool fronts to bring us some rain and cool the ground down, we're going to stay hot."

He said a cold front could work its way into the area by the weekend, but that would only provide a day or two of relief, "and we'll be back into heat by the middle of next week."

By 3 p.m. CDT Tuesday, it already was 103 degrees in Lawton, 101 in Frederick and 100 at Altus Air Force Base, Hobart and Stillwater. In Oklahoma City -- which has hit 100 degrees for nine straight days -- it was 98 degrees.

It's hard to escape the heat, even at night. When players from Bray-Doyle High School took the field for practice at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature in Stephens County was about 80 degrees.

Heat is the primary concern for high school athletic trainers and coaches during the early days of football practice, as some teams practice two or three times a day, said Matt Crumley, the athletic trainer for Del City High School.

"For this week, pretty much, it's water, water, water, water, and take care of heat-related illnesses as best we can," Crumley said.

At the University of Tulsa, players begin the hydration process weeks before practices began, starting quarterback Paul Smith said.

"They've iced towels out there to cool off your neck and head, and they've got plenty of water breaks," Smith said. "Any time you need a break, you just tell a coach and everybody understands it's not (that) you're wanting to sit out a play or you're being a wimp. It's just that you need to get hydrated."

At least five football players have died this summer from heat-related problems, the most recent being Tyler L. Davis, a 15-year-old from Rockdale County High School in Georgia, who died Aug. 1.

"One of the things we preach to our kids during the spring and all summer long is that you've got to get out in it," Del City coach Jeff Craig said. "You've got to be out in it in the middle of the day. I try to do that myself as a coach because I'm going to be in it, to get myself acclimated to it.

"We try to get the kids to understand you can't pop out here the first day of two-a-days and think you're in shape if you haven't been out in the heat. It's not the same game."