Texas high school football programs are adjusting how and when they practice after the state made heat-safety protocols mandatory on Aug. 1.
The University Interscholastic League (UIL) now requires every public school in the state to use Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) readings to determine whether conditions are safe enough to practice outdoors. The policy, which also applies to other outdoor sports and marching band activities, had been recommended by the UIL for the past three years, though it was never mandated.
“We basically base our practice, our water breaks, all those things off of that,” Andra McDougall, an athletic trainer at McCallum High School in Austin, told Front Office Sports.
WBGT estimates environmental heat stress by accounting for temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. Unlike the heat index, WBGT is designed to account for all of the conditions athletes experience while exercising outside.
The UIL uses different WBGT thresholds based on regional climate. In Class 3 areas, which cover much of Texas, any reading of 82 degrees or higher triggers practice modifications. Class 2 schools begin making modifications at 79.7 degrees.
