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July 9, 2009

Two-a-days too much?

By Jay Neal

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com

SAN ANTONIO — The National Athletic Trainers’ Association, a professional organization headquartered in Dallas, recently issued a report stating a need to scale back on two-a-day football practices during the first week of August.

NATA said exhausting practice sessions in the opening days of August are too dangerous due to the intense Texas heat and humidity.

The group proposed recommendations which provide for longer breaks between practice and more time for players to ease into contact drills. NATA said the changes are not drastic steps and they closely parallel guidelines in place at the NCAA Division I college level.

The new policy modifications proposed are aimed at stopping heatstroke deaths among student athletes. Heatstroke has taken the lives of 39 football players on all levels since 1995, with most of the deaths occurring during the first 14 days in August.

The guidelines call for a single practice in each of the first five practice days, in days 6-14 a double practice day must be followed up with a single-session day, each practice session should last no more than three hours and when starting practices in protective gear the first two days should be helmets-only and the next three days should be helmets- and pads-only.

Longtime Jacksonville High School athletic trainer Jeff “Doc” Shrode said that while he had not had a chance to thoroughly review all NATA’s proposals, heat issues have not been a problem during his 14-year tenure at JHS — Shrode takes over shortly at Bullard High School in the same capacity.

“We have not had any issues because we have always had coaches who listen to recommendations (regarding the health of student athletes) and we are able to monitor conditions and work together and do what is best for the athletes,” he said when contacted by telephone late last week. “For example, if it is extremely hot and humid on a given day we may not go out in pads, although we were scheduled to practice in full pads that day, or if additional water breaks are needed due to the conditions we allow for them.”

Shrode went on to say it takes a balance between the sports and medical communities to make the proper decisions concerning the prevention of heat-related illnesses.

The University Interscholastic League and its member schools are not bound by edicts from NATA.

Any sweeping changes would have to be made by the UIL to be enforced statewide, but at the same time the courts are putting more and more responsibility for the well being of the student athletes directly onto the coaches.

Prosecutors in Kentucky have charged a coach with reckless homicide, holding the coach criminally responsible for a 15-year-old player’s death in August 2008. The boy collapsed during football practice and later died.

“Things aren’t going very well at the high school level,” said Douglas Casa, director of athletic training education at the University of Connecticut and co-author of the NATA report. “This wasn’t done for the convenience of coaches.”

Current Texas guidelines state schools must take a minimum one-hour break between practice during two-a-days.

The report also said all schools should have certified athletic trainers on hand before, during and after practices.

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