You're supposed to wear "sweaters" to football games!

Every year the temperatures get hotter and hotter, and it stays hot longer and longer. I remember, back in the 80s, band camp was horribly hot and miserable, and we complained about the heat every day at practice. But, shortly after the season began, the temperatures began to level off and the chill in the evenings began to make it feel like football season. Once the half-way point of the season arrived, we were able to wear our jackets and sweats. 

Now, my 9-year-old son is playing "little league" football and it is really dangerous for him and all of the other kids. We've had 90+ degree days consistently in Atlanta, and the heat indices have been hovering between 100 and 118 on a regular basis. The Gwinnett Football League has determined that when the heat index hits 105, practices will be cancelled. But, the notifications that the league receives comes from the weather center at the weather channel, which is NOT located in Gwinnett County. Their monitors are not in Gwinnett County, and so their readings can not possibly be accurate. Unfortunately, the only accurate reading would be a reading from the field upon which the boys are playing. 


There have been practices throughout the last two weeks in which the temperature reading on my car thermometer has hit 98 and 99 degrees. It has been so hot on the field that we, the parents, have been sweating like we have just finished running a marathon. And we were just sitting and watching the practice. I am positive that with the humidity we've had here in Georgia lately, the heat index has definitely reached 105 a number of times. 


As a mother, I worry every single day, but is this added worry necessary? We make the boys drink water constantly, we make sure that the coaches are taking their required water breaks. We squirt them down with a chilled water sprayer, and make them remove their shoulder pads and helmets when they break. But, is all that enough?


Is it really necessary for us to begin the "little league" football season at the same time that the high school begins theirs? We only play an 8 week schedule with 3 weeks of playoffs and 2 weeks of preliminary practices. Why couldn't we begin the football season in September? The temperature may still be in the 90s, but it would be in the low 90s, and more than likely, the 80s. That difference would be HUGE for the boys. We would still finish the season before the Christmas break, and we wouldn't be infringing upon the next sport season, which is usually basketball. 


Every year we hear about a number of kids dying, yes dying, on the football field because of heat exhaustion or some other heat related issue. How many kids have to die before we adjust the schedule? How many child deaths are considered acceptable, and what's the number that will force change? 


We do all that we can for our kids during these horribly hot summer days in the South, but there's only so much we can do when the schedule is set during the hottest days of the year. When will safety outweigh football?