CAUTION AVERTS A CRISIS AT NITRO
COACHES SAY HEAT A TOP PRIORITY EVEN BEFORE THIS TRAGEDY
Publication:
Published: 08/02/2001
Page: P1B
Headline: CAUTION AVERTS A CRISIS AT NITRO COACHES SAY HEAT A TOP PRIORITY EVEN
BEFORE THIS TRAGEDY
Byline: JASON MARTIN
DAILY MAIL SPORTSWRITER
The Nitro Wildcat felt
flushed and couldn't get his breath, asked the
coach for a breather and then headed into the locker room to cool
down.
During a break in practice Tuesday, Coach "Little" Burdette went to
check up on his player, who told the coach he'd come back out and run
offensive drills. He stood up, staggered a couple of half steps and
sat back down.
On the same hot day that later claimed the life of Minnesota Viking
tackle Korey Stringer, this Kanawha County high
school player was
later diagnosed at a hospital with dehydration, symptoms of heat
stroke and extremely low blood pressure.
"It could have been real bad," Burdette said. "But when he tried
to
stand back up and couldn't, we knew our kid was
finished. That's so
much one of my biggest fears that I rarely even think about it. I try
to repress it that it could happen to us."
Stringer, 27, died Wednesday morning from heat stroke complications
following Tuesday practice, at which he vomited at least three times
but didn't see a trainer until practice ceased.
Also on Tuesday, an
aneurysm that may have been initiated by high temperatures, the
Indianapolis Star reported.
Last week,
after he collapsed of heat stroke. A
study reports that 18 high school or college players have died of
heat-related causes since 1995.
When St. Albans High's players gathered for practice early Wednesday
morning, Coach Bart Hillenbrand and trainer Marshall Cavender
had
already heard about Stringer's death and decided to confront the issue
immediately. Hillenbrand checked role, and then gave Cavender
the
floor.
"We went back over everything," Hillenbrand said. "We didn't
want to
go too far the other way and scare the kids, but (hydration) is a
priority for coaches. It put me behind in practice, but you won't hear
me complaining."
Even before the incident, the Red Dragons required players to get
medical checks beyond the requisite physical forms to try to detect
abnormalities that might arise.
Each practice session, Cavender has players weigh in
before and after
drills, and holds them out of practice if they've lost too much body
weight during a strenuous workout.
"You don't lose fat out there in a couple of hours, you're just losing
water," Hillenbrand said. "And then, you're not practicing and taking
that risk for us."
- - n
GARY EGGLETON'S playing
days came in the mid- to late-'60s, when
coaches tested players' "manliness" more often than 40-yard dash
times.
"Water was a sign of weakness," said Eggleton,
the coach at Hurricane
High. "We'd go three-and-a-half hours with not a drop of water. Then,
they'd shovel 20 salt pills down your throat."
Capital Coach Jack Woolwine remembers that same era
all too well.
"Water wasn't allowed on the field," he said. "You took the salt
tablets before and after practice. All that stuff is taboo now."
Along with the advance of sports medicine, the coaches remember their
cotton-mouthed playing days and don't want to put their players
through a repeat.
So on Wednesday, as Eggleton put his receivers
through skeleton
drills, he had individual water bottles stationed behind them so that
they could get a drink after every pass.
And at Laidley Field, where the solid concrete
foundation, metal
bleachers and blazing Astroturf combine to cook the Cougars to 10 to
15 degrees warmer than any other high school practice surface,
Woolwine continues a school rule that his own mentors
would have never
considered.
"Any time, for any reason, if a kid wants a drink, he leaves and gets
it," he said. "We don't say anything. We welcome them to do
that."
Woolwine also hits on a reason why the amount of
players who have had
fatal bouts of heat stroke has spiked in recent years.
"For the last 20 or 30 years, kids have lived in an air conditioned
world," he said. "When I was in high school, you didn't have air
conditioning in your houses or your cars, you were
more acclimated to
the heat. When they come out in that heat now, it's a drastic change."
- - n
NITRO USUALLY practices at
8 a.m. and 7 p.m. to give players a rest
and to avoid the sun's hottest hours. But a mandatory rules meeting at
Capital High necessitated a change of plans Wednesday. The Wildcats
had to practice at 2 p.m. in the swelter a day after their player's
shakeup.
"As a staff, we decided immediately that we'd run no conditioning
drills," Burdette said. "Zero. No sprints.
This time of year, that's
really all you can get done, but we didn't care. We just went through
our assignments."
Autin's and Stringer's deaths weighed heavily in the
decision. But
even more important to Burdette was the incident that fortunately
wasn't fatal.
"It happened to one of our own," he said. "And immediately, that
has
us scared to death."