'You can't mess around with it': How Volusia, Flagler football teams are dealing with heat
Halfway through football practice each morning, the University Titans stop everything.
They take their helmets off and walk over to the sideline. During a coach-mandated, five-minute break, they hydrate and attempt to cool off. They can sit down and put towels around their necks.
“Basically, everything you’re never allowed to do at a football practice, you’re allowed to do,” head coach Justin Roberts said. “... Just because you can’t mess around with it.”
The “it” Roberts refers to is the heat.
Ready for the understatement of the year? It’s been warm around here this summer.
Orlando saw the hottest Fourth of July in 25 years. That same day, the heat index in parts of Volusia County hit 108 degrees. Central Florida endured another heat advisory late last month, with peak feels-like temperatures between 106-111 in Daytona Beach.
So when fall camp started for all the local squads this week, Roberts and other coaches took safety precautions, mainly with early practice times and ensuring their players remain hydrated.
Volusia County Schools restricts teams from being on an outdoor field from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this time of year. That rule has been in place for almost a decade. When classes start this month, practices will shift to the late afternoons. Teams can still meet between 11-5 for film study or indoor walk-throughs.
Under first-year head coach Lester Davis, Seabreeze has conducted its outdoor practices from 8:30-11 each morning. After a lunch break, the Sandcrabs move to the school gymnasium for an hour from 12:30-1:30.
Spruce Creek’s practices run from 8-10:30. University’s go from 9-11. Flagler Palm Coast went even further, going from 6-8 a.m.
Teams can begin contact practices Saturday.
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“We have water breaks that are built in, but it’s like, they get water any time they want,” Hawks coach Andy Price said. “We have trainers at every single station, and they’re handing out water constantly. We do take breaks between sessions, but they get water any time they want to get water. And we let the kids kind of sub in and out a little bit if they feel like they need it.
“But yeah, it’s really, really hot.”
To end practice Monday, the first day of fall camp, Price delivered one last message to his team. It wasn’t about X’s and O’s or even the next day’s schedule.
He emphasized how crucial hydration is and gave them a suggestion. When they wake up in the morning, fill a gallon jug with water and place it on the kitchen counter. By the time they go to bed that night, drink the whole thing.
“Try to be doing that,” he told them, saying he is doing the same.
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In addition to their team-wide breaks and having water readily available during drills, University provides a snack table, with food from boosters, on the players’ way into practice. The Titans also keep a shade tent on the sideline and eat frozen popsicles after the workouts.
“When we had our staff meeting before the year started,” Roberts said, “I told our coaches, ‘Look, we’re not going to toe the line on this if a kid looks like he is heating up.’”
No excuses.
“We have such great kids,” he said. “Two of my D-linemen today were on fumes, and they won’t pull themselves out. They won’t let you, which is what you want. But you have to kind of protect them from themselves — ‘You’re out for three or four plays. Go sit down.’”
Even after the normal five-minute intermission at a practice this week, Roberts saw his players lagging a bit.
He stopped everything and gave them a three-minute break.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia, Flagler area high school football teams cope with torrid heat
