A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Student-athletes across the country are lacing up their cleats and fastening their helmets for the start of fall sports. Millions of them will take the field this month, just as some of the year's hottest temperatures arrive. Houston Public Media's Bianca Seward reports on a new safety rule in Texas.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Let's go.
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BIANCA SEWARD, BYLINE: For the North Forest varsity football team in Houston, the state's signature hot and humid afternoons are brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: Describe the Houston heat in one word? Horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: Torture is the only word I would use (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: Torture. That's crazy.
SEWARD: But the elements should be taken seriously. On average, temperatures hover around the mid-90s in August according to the National Weather Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency reports approximately 9,000 student-athletes are treated for heat-related illnesses every year.
Dr. Sujit Iyer is a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at the Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin. He says August in Texas can be one of the most dangerous environments for student-athletes and a common time for the rare but deadly heatstroke to strike.
SUJIT IYER: Although there's only a few cases of heatstroke every year that makes the news, when those kids come in, they often die. Up to, like, 33% of them die.
SEWARD: Dr. Iyer adds one of the best ways a young athlete can protect themselves is by taking time to acclimate to the heat.
IYER: Just remember that exercising alone produces heat, and so you're combining two things. You're combining kids who maybe not have been exercising all summer, now not ready for the heat, now producing more heat, which can be just a bad combination to then cause injury.
SEWARD: He recommends students listen to their bodies, and if they feel weak, confused, nauseous or dizzy, they should tap out and take a break.
This year, Texas is adding a new layer of protection for teams. Before any outdoor activity, they'll need to consult the wet-bulb globe temperature reading, or WBGT for short. That's a comprehensive assessment of the heat risk. It takes into account air temperature, humidity, wind speed and cloud cover. When it comes to assessing how safe it is to practice outside, it's more informative than the heat index, which only factors air temperature and humidity and assumes you're in the shade. Here's Jamey Harrison, the executive director of the University Interscholastic League, which governs high school sports here in Texas.
JAMEY HARRISON: Bottom line is this is the national gold standard for keeping kids safe when working in the heat.
SEWARD: The state joins 17 others in mandating WBGT readings. The readings correlate to guidelines to help coaches know when outdoor practice needs to be cut short or canceled altogether. Brian Zettler is the chairman of the board for the Texas State Athletic Trainers' Association and says the overall approach to protecting student-athletes has changed dramatically.
BRIAN ZETTLER: The evolution of the athletic training profession is by far the biggest difference.
SEWARD: Zettler says the extra medical expertise on the sidelines that athletic trainers provide can help catch overheated athletes before they get worse. But athletic trainers aren't required. According to the National Athletic Trainers' Association, only 37% of public high schools have a full-time athletic trainer. Oftentimes, for smaller schools with less resources, monitoring the players can fall to the coaching staff, which, Dr. Iyer warns, can be difficult to juggle.
IYER: I think it's more difficult when you're the coach who's trying to run a practice, who's trying to kind of manage people and then you have somebody who has a complaint, right? And now you're trying to triage that complaint to see if it's something that needs more medical attention or if it's something that just needs some rest.
SEWARD: The new safety requirement to help protect athletes from the heat extends only to practices and not game days, when the heat can also be brutal.
For NPR News, I'm Bianca Seward in Houston.
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