How Korey Stringer’s death 25 years ago changed Butler County football teams’ approach to heat
Eric Christy remembers practicing under a blanket of heat while the dried grass and dirt that made up Butler’s football practice field begged for rain.
Now Butler’s head coach, the then-Golden Tornado quarterback had water breaks during practice, but some coaches believed players had to be “good enough” to “earn that water,” he said.
“We’ve kinda learned, ‘Nah, if you need water, go get it.’”
The way in which football practices are conducted has changed in ways that mitigate heat-related illnesses since Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer collapsed at training camp and died of heatstroke 25 years ago.
Player safety is foremost today.
“When we grew up, you watch the movies or you hear stories like, ‘Water’s weakness. Water’s bad for the body,’” former NFL offensive lineman and current Seneca Valley coach Don Barclay said. “We try and give as many water breaks as we can.”
More water breaks aren’t the only way teams have evolved to prevent heat-related illness.
The PIAA requires a week of heat acclimatization, which begins Monday, and has limits on the total number of hours of practice per week, consecutive hours per day and the number of full-pad practices teams must follow in the three weeks before the regular season begins.
At West Virginia University, Barclay and his Mountaineers teammates got a five-minute break ”to either sit down, lay down, whatever it was, to kinda collect yourself“ in the middle of practice, he said.
Moniteau coach Clay Kohlmeyer doesn’t always require his players to get fully suited up for sessions, even once full-pad practices can begin.
“A lot more — we call it ‘pro days’ — (wearing just) shoulder pads and shorts and a lot more water breaks than I remember,” said Kohlmeyer, who played for the Warriors from 2001-04. “I was out there running.”
If the Moniteau teams in his playing days didn’t line up in a formation right, the consequence was more conditioning, no matter what the temperature was. Kohlmeyer and his teammates also had to scale the massive hill that encloses one side of Luciano Plesakov Stadium, and three-a-day practices meant more trips up and down that ridge than Kohlmeyer would like to remember.
“The processes that they take now are very high-level, very detailed and educated to protect these kids, no matter if you’re at the NFL level or high school or youth level,” Barclay said. “So everyone kinda gets a nice week of work in and kinda acclimates himself until you get into full pads.”
“You’re always worried about (players’ health),” Kohlmeyer said. “It’s nice that everybody’s worried about it now. I don’t have to do it myself. ... There’s more than one person watching it now.”
Kohlmeyer also praised his training staff, which helps monitor the temperature and keeps water at the ready. Butler head athletic trainer Holly Bachman-Forbes said educating coaches and student-athletes on signs and symptoms of heat-related illness is imperative.
Shade should also be provided and ice should be available for “cool immersions or ice baths” to treat players.
Coaches pay attention to their players, using “the eye test all the time,” Christy said. “If the kid’s struggling in everything they’re doing, then there could be a reason for it.” If a student-athlete isn’t up to speed conditioning-wise or didn’t regularly attend offseason workouts, when they join the team for camp, they might struggle.
“That’s why the heat acc’s in place, so you don’t just jump in and start playing football,” Christy said. “You can spend the time training a kid and watching over him.”
Symptoms of heat exhaustion, which is more common than heatstroke, include “extremely heavy sweating, feeling really dizzy or lightheaded, sometimes you can feel a headache with it,” Bachman-Forbes said. “You can feel nauseous at times.” It’s treated by a dunk in an ice bath and maybe intravenous fluids at a medical provider.
Heatstroke, meanwhile, is characterized by clammy skin or stopping sweating altogether, along with confusion and possibly loss of consciousness. It can lead to organ failure if not treated quickly.
But not all youth sports teams have the luxury of an athletic trainer. Bachman-Forbes offered advice for such situations.
Rather than treating an athlete showing symptoms of heatstroke with fluids, “focus on that rapid cooling,” Bachman said. “Applying anything cold — ice — in their armpits and their groins is going to be the fastest way to cool someone if you don’t have a full ice immersion.”
