Coachella Valley high school sports impacted by extreme heat; new safety measure in effect

The intense heat Thursday canceled or delayed some outdoor high school sports throughout the desert cities.

Palm Springs and Indio High School tennis were delayed. While a golf match between Palm Springs and Redlands High Schools was cancelled.

Junior Varsity High School football was impacted at both Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs High Schools as well.

We had the chance to hear from Desert Hot Springs High Schools' Athletics Department to learn how schools make the decision to play or not while dealing with warmer temperatures.

"In the summertime. We had a lot of times that we had to push practice back, we would do our first couple hours in the gym or indoors somewhere that we can get some conditioning. Just staying on the safe side and not having our kids out here in the heat," said Desert Hot Springs High School Head Football Coach, Roy Provost.

Coach Provost says it’s all about adapting to the new California Interscholastic Federation standards that were set in place by Assembly Bill 1653 .

The bill required the CIF to develop guidelines and safety standards to prevent and manage heat related illness by July 1, 2024.

"We had an away game at Citrus Hill in Perris, and with our new 'wet bulb' rules and regulations that we have to follow, they felt that was it was necessary for the health and safety of the players to not continue with the game," said Coach Provost.

The guidelines call for the use of a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) meter.

The device tracks temperature, humidity, wind strength and comes up with a reading to help teams gauge the heat’s impact on players.

"Once it passed above 92 or 90, then we need to either cancel the practice, or we can practice for certain time. But we need to modulate our plan," said Desert Hot Springs High School Athletic Trainer, Genki Matono.

Genki walked me through one of his readings at 6 p.m.

"Now we went down to 85.2 so yeah, we got the green light and we can stop practicing today," said Genki.

Although coaches used their best judgment to carry out a cancellation, the use of the WBGT meter is ensuring all schools follow the same standard.

"Some coaches may want to practice right before the important games. But if it's not safe, we have certain numbers that we can provide to the coaches and convince them of a delayed starting time, and I think that we needed this kind of things to back us up," said Genki.

Overall the new guidelines ensure players health and safety leaving teams to play by a new standard.

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