How are high school football teams practicing in Bradenton’s record-setting heat?

Football practice in the early morning?

It’s just one tactic local teams are using to beat the record-breaking heat. Some are practicing into the night and in gyms.

It’s not an unknown challenge each year, but 2023 has proven a brutal summer.

July, for example, was the hottest and driest it’s ever been on record in the Tampa Bay area. This Wednesday was the first time in ten days there wasn’t a heat advisory, another record.

And August, when football teams in Manatee County could start practicing in full pads, has seen several days with heat advisories or warnings.

It’s led to creative ways for teams to practice in preparation for Aug. 25, the date of the first regular season football games.

What is the wet bulb?

The crux of it all is every team’s biggest opponent this summer: the wet bulb.

Each high school is required to have one. It’s a heat monitor that the school’s athletic trainer uses to determine whether or not it’s too hot to practice outside.

“It’s not a temperature,” Braden River head coach Curt Bradley said. “It puts out a number. The wet bulb globe, I forget the acronym for it, but it’s not just, ‘Oh it’s 95 degrees outside.’ No, the wet bulb takes into humidity, takes into direct sunlight and wind. So there’s all sorts of things.”

The wet bulb shoots a number, which is cross-checked with a color-coded chart that indicates the zone it falls under and whether or not a team can practice outside.

The zones are yellow, orange, red and black.

“The yellow zone is no real restrictions outside of mandatory water breaks every so many per hour,” Bradley said. “The orange zone is just helmets and shoulder pads. Shorter practice. The red zone is no protective equipment for one hour. And the black zone is you cannot be outside doing any physical activity. And it’s been in the black area, for the most part, every single day.”

Beating the heat

Even before fall camp started July 31, it was apparent that coaches would need a game plan to beat the heat.

July was a scorching hot month along the Suncoast.

To battle the heat, Bradley didn’t attempt to practice at the usual afternoon time slot. Rather, practices were held from 6-8 a.m.

“Got in and got out before heat, before lightning just to make sure we could get our practices in,” Bradley said.

East Manatee rivals Lakewood Ranch also chose a morning schedule.

Mustangs head coach Scott Paravicini said they didn’t run into a heat issue until maybe 8:45 or 8:50 a.m.

They practiced from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m.

“So we didn’t really miss much of that practice,” Paravicini said.

Palmetto is another program that moved some practices to the morning. Head coach Rashad West was previously at Lakewood Ranch and said the move to the morning “was born out of being over there and losing so many practices in the preseason.”

But it’s not completely inescapable, even with an early start.

“By 9, 9:30, it’s blazing and we get run off with the wet bulb,” West said. “So we can’t totally escape it.”

However, that move was obtainable until Aug. 10, when classes resumed, for most programs.

So practicing in the evening hours became an attempt at avoiding a missed outside practice. But if it is too hot, then going indoors is the alternative.

That’s what Manatee had to do for at least one practice, before shifting toward an evening schedule.

And when the heat has nixed outdoor practices, it has given the Hurricanes a chance to watch more film and work more on the mental side of the game.

“So we got a chance to just do a bunch of walkthroughs and make sure the kids (know) everything front and back,” Manatee head coach Jacquez Green said. “And also I think the kids will be a little bit more fresh when we start the season as opposed to years past where you going through every day in the hot sun day after day after day.”

Green added he got tired of fighting the afternoon heat and went to a practice schedule from 6-8 p.m.

A former NFL and University of Florida star, Green said he knows what it’s like to be a player dealing with the heat.

And players can get as many water breaks as its needed.

Staying hydrated is a key every year when football returns, but it’s even more paramount in 2023.

“A lot of trainers walk around with water bottles and stuff like that help us stay hydrated,” Palmetto senior defensive back Izaiah Jackson said.

The Tigers also utilize ice baths, which has become a viral social media trend, to stay cool. It’s also used for recovering after practice.

“It’s pretty cold, especially once you first get in,” Jackson said. “Once you get three minutes in, you’re good.”