The Oak Hills community recently got hit with an oppressive heat wave that resulted in the school switching to a half-day schedule. However, even though the building cleared out by 1:00 pm, sports didn’t still continue right after school.
Oak Hills Athletic Director Ben Hageman stated that “The Ohio High School Athletic Association has guidelines for practice restrictions due to excessive heat” and “ the athletic trainers, coaches, and the athletic office worked collaboratively to come up with solutions that best fit the needs of each team and the safety of our student-athletes.” While not all the sports had the exact same adjusted schedule, some looked pretty similar.
Two of the fall sports, Football and Men’s Cross Country, decided to hold morning practices to avoid the heat. That required for the athletes of those teams to arrive at Oak Hills ready to practice at 6 am or earlier in order to get in practice and have enough time to shower and eat before school started. Juniors Bryce Korb on the cross country team and Brady Kornmann on the football team both remarked that they enjoyed morning practice, but also a struggle. Korb admitted that “the weather was beautiful”, getting to watch the sunrise while practicing. Kornmann felt the same about the conditions, but confessed that he “didn’t enjoy showering at school”.
Athletes arriving on time became a bit of an issue at morning practices. Both athletes reported that multiple teammates would arrive late to practice. While it wasn’t a perfect solution to the heat, morning practices did mean that those athletes avoided the heat of the day, and got to go home immediately after school.
Marching Band, another popular after-school sport, had a different approach to the heat. Instead of practicing in the morning, the marching band moved their practice to the evening. The practices started at 5:30 p.m., but for the first hour and a half the practice remained indoors. The last hour they spent outside, but as one of the members of the marching band Cole Borton put it, “we had all experienced similar heat to that during our band camp that took place in the two weeks before school started.”
Like morning practices, the evening practices have their benefits and drawbacks. While they didn’t have to worry about practicing in the morning and going to school tired, the marching band had to deal with significantly more heat.
Thankfully, the heat wave is now behind, and all sports are back to their normal schedule.
