By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – High school sports seasons are starting during a stretch of extreme heat days, prompting schools to take precautions to keep student-athletes safe during games and practices.
Read more New Arizona alert system targets deed fraud: Here’s how it works
Salpointe Catholic’s football team was set to face Marana High in a season opener at 7 p.m. Thursday, with temperatures expected to be in the high 90s or triple digits at kickoff.
Students will take frequent water breaks and are told to speak up if they feel unwell. Licensed medics will be on the field in case of a heat-related incident.
Phil Gruensfelder, athletic director at Salpointe Catholic, said the precautions are worth it.
“It’s important for kids to get out, to run around, and to do something that they really, really enjoy doing,” Gruensfelder said.
Gruensfelder said hot conditions at the start of the school year make afternoon practices unsafe.
“They can’t come out and run in the afternoon at 3:30 or 4:00 because the conditions are dangerous,” Gruensfelder said.
Gruensfelder said Salpointe, like many other schools in southern Arizona, holds practices in the early morning at the start of the year.
“They go from 6 a.m. to typically 7:30 a.m. or 7:45 a.m. We start school a little after 8 a.m. here, so that gives the kids enough time to get in, take a shower, and go,” Gruensfelder said.
Kevin Smith, chief medical officer at Tucson Medical Center, said kids and teens are more susceptible to heat illness than adults.
Read more Newly surfaced video shows Arizona candidate handcuffed in 2020 traffic stop
“Some of it is their body just isn’t as well developed as adults are when it comes to how their body regulates temperature. The other part of it is that teens might not necessarily recognize that it’s too hot for them to be practicing or they’re playing too hard,” Smith said.
Smith said football is the sport most susceptible to heat illness.
“It’s 11 times more likely to have heat-related illness from it,” Smith said.
Salpointe practices inside as much as possible and takes precautions on the field, according to Gruensfelder.
“We give water breaks often. I can’t tell you a time, but it’s probably 10 or 15 minutes. We also have on our football field a big tub – it’s an ice tub – that if we see that a student is getting overheated and we need to cool them down immediately, we can submerge them in that,” Gruensfelder said.
The school also recently installed a weather system that detects wet bulb, which measures heat stress on the human body through factors including humidity, the angle of the sun, and wind speed.
“If that wet bulb is in unhealthy ranges, I mean we know it, and it’s not a couple miles away; it’s right here at Salpointe,” Gruensfelder said.
High schools are required to have either certified athletic trainers or EMTs on the field during games to respond in the case of heat illness in student athletes or fans in the stands.
Are you streaming 13 News?
Watch a free live stream of Tucson Now and 13 News at TucsonNow.Live.
Be sure to download the free Tucson Now app, which you can find on Apple and Google.
If you are using a desktop computer, you can use your mobile device to scan the QR code below.
Read more GOP lieutenant governor nominee Sine Kerr sits down with Dan Marries
You can submit your breaking news or weather images here.