Several coaches this week are under fire for practicing/competing during the heat wave in Southern California. Garret Updegraft was one casualty of a coach that didn’t make the right decision.
Football Player Collapses on Sideline
Updegraft is a freshman and captain on the Newhall Hart high school football team. While temperatures hit 113 degrees, his football coach chose to have the athletes practice in full pads on Monday, September 27, 2010.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times (Plaschke, B., 2010), Updegraft started feeling sick after Monday’s practice. He attended practice the next day and complained of dizziness and shortness of breath during the practice. The article reported that parents on the sideline watched while the coach had Updegraft leave the field.
While the coach maintains that he sent Updegraft to cool off in the shade, the parents watched Updegraft go in to convulsions on the sideline (Plaschke, B., 2010). While one parent assisted Updegraft by trying to cool him off with water and cool towels, the football coach came over to the athlete and decided that it was not a medical emergency. Rather than calling for emergency medical services, the coach called Updegraft’s mother to come pick him up.
His mother rushed him to a local medical center for treatment. The doctor treating him stated that “Garrett was lucky he was in such good shape, or it could have been much worse”. He is lucky. He recovered and is back playing football. However, it could have turned out very differently.
Unless the coach has a medical degree, this was not a decision that was his to make. Basic first aid courses teach first responders to call for emergency medical services if someone may be suffering from a possible heat illness. Adding to the seriousness of the medical emergency were the reported sideline convulsions.
Was the Football Coach Negligent?
Was this football coach negligent in how he handled the medical emergency? According to the doctor who treated the freshman, the young football player could have suffered serious consequences from the coach’s decision to continue football practice during the recent heat wave with athletes in full gear, and to not immediately call for medical help when the athlete was in medical distress (Plaschke, B., 2010). Perhaps this time, the coach is as lucky as the player.
Football players have not been the only casualties of the soaring heat this week in California. Twelve cross country runner were transported to local hospitals yesterday (September 30, 2010) after a cross country meet at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. Two of the twelve runners were reportedly in critical condition due to heat illness (KABC News, 2010).
The temperature was reported to be 98 degrees when the cross country meet started. To handle all of the athletes affected by heat illness, more than 45 firefighters were dispatched to the scene along with 8 ambulances. The event was sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District (KABC news, 2010).
So when do the adults who work with young athletes decide to place the welfare of the athletes above sports competition? This is a valid question as it appears that many athletes were placed at risk for serious heat illness this week in Southern California.
Heat-Illness Prevention Plan
Preventing heat illness starts with educating coaches as to the signs and symptoms of heat illness along with how to prevent heat illness. There are guidelines for preventing heat illness posted on the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s website. The document also includes a heat-illness prevention plan including:
- Medical screening (identifying at-risk athletes)
- Acclimatization
- Conditioning
- Environmental Monitoring (outdoor temperature and humidity)
- Practice adjustments (rescheduling workouts, frequent water breaks, shorten practices, decreased exercise intensity, removal of protective equipment)
There are also guidelines as to when to cancel all outdoor activities when the outdoor temperature and humidity are too high. According to the report on KABC news (September 30, 2010), the school district had a policy to cancel outdoor events if the temperature exceeded 95 degrees. Unfortunately for the cross country athletes, the policy was not followed.
Coaches who place their athletes at risk for injury or illness (when there are existing policies and procedures in place) may find themselves on the other end of a lawsuit. Making coaches accountable may be the motivation some coaches need in order to begin placing the welfare of their student-athletes above their sport.
References
National Athletic Trainers’ Association. (2002). NATA Positional Statement: Exertional Heat Illness. Journal of Athletic Training. 37(3) pp 329-343.
Plaschke, B. (October 1, 2010). Heated debate over practice. Los Angeles Times.
www.abclocal.go.com/kabc. 12 Hospitalized with Heat Illness during Meet. Accessed on October 1, 2010.
Terry Zeigler - Educating through writing with over twenty-five years of experience as a Kinesiology Professor and Certified Athletic Trainer.
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