As the parking lot thinned after the Wildcats' first practice in full pads, senior wide receiver and defensive back Antwaun Lewis was still on the field, running sprints alone, as evening faded to night.
As he jogged off the field, shoulder pads and helmet in hand and sweat dripping from his face, he explained his motivation: "Just trying to be better than the next man."
On the Web:
- Camden High School Wildcats
- Georgia state rules for high school football practice
- Univ. of Georgia study on football deaths
- NOAA weather data
- Univ. of Georgia heat-stress study
- National Athletic Trainers Association guidelines
- Marietta High School Blue Devils
- Ga. Athletic Trainers' Assoc
- UConn's heat safety study analysis
- 2007 Shoulder pad study
This article originally appeared at The Daily Climate, the climate change news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.



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16 Comments
Add Comment"Some grumble that South Georgia's trademark football might lose its punch", much better to send a couple kids to the lord than lose a game. If Jesus needs a blood sacrific to ensure a winning season then who are we to disagree?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTexas football has always been hot...SciAm is nuts...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGod I hope so! Finally a good side effect of climate change. I say get rid of the college and professional crap too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe they should do a study to see if being spoiled with A/C can make you more susceptible to stroke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes the military suffer from any of these same problems when they send their 'maggots' out on drills?
By the way, a 95 degree day will still be 95 degrees even with climate change; so, how can it make it worse? They've already got advisories not to play when the temperature exceeds a certain degree.
No need to use pejoratives; you're making the article writer look better and without contributing anything substantial to the topic. Why not point out what makes it unintelligent?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPosting rational comments dissecting the vapidity of ignorant illogical articles is unnecessary.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm with pokerplayer on this one.
I think that they need to ban lattes and triple shot americanos also. The coffee growers are deforesting the jungle and this is creating mad-made climate change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso outlaw bio-fuels as it is causing starvation.
And outlaw windmills as they kill birds.
What say you?
Rude foolish comments does nothing to help solve a very serious problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat DO we really do about the climate getting so hot?
There's no easy fix.
Use solar to clean more water.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisClean water is subsidized MORE than gasoline. and it's cost a lot more per gallon!!!
We have created life styles that will not be sustained in the future...look at all impulsive advertising, it's not just grandiose, it's foolish nonsense.
Marketing has stuped to a false of feeling good to sell wasteful junk that should not have been make in the first place..
How many people live like that, no one I know?
Let's think about reality.
Find ways to enjoy life with less pollution.
There's a thousand things going unreported in physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. and we get another 'fluff' article from 'Unscientific American'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCurious...if temperatures are not as hot next summer will it be cooling? No...it will dismissed as 'weather'.
By the way...summer in Western Canada is slightly below average temperature. Global warming is not based on a season in the USA in an region that is less than 1% of the world's surfac,
The title should be "New Rule Restricts Football Practice".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr ... "Hot Weather In Southern Georgia In August? Who Woulda Thunk It?
Dump the helmets, dump the pads, and stop scrambling brains. And since high school football is merely a sport, and not a war, don't risk lives by practicing in the heat.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis change has nothing to do with climate change but a change in the understanding of health w.r.t workouts in the heat. Basically competitiveness has risen between sports programs over the past 40 years and the result has been tougher and longer training sessions for athletes. This then resulted in deaths which made people (and then coaches) finally realize that it was a bad idea to overdue it in the heat. A shocking revelation... don't ride a horse to hard or it will die.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot everything is about climate change and dubious connections doesn't help the argument.
I wasn't going to post a comment. But this article is absurd.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI thought Scientific Anerican was supposed to be about Science. Real, honest to goodness, objective, factually based science. Years ago I actually respected this magazine.
What's happened to my Scientific American? Has it been taken over by an escaped gang of renegade elves from the North Pole?
Look at:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=tmp&month=8&year=2011&filter=1&state=9&div=0
Is the issue really temperature? Perhaps we are just getting less acclimated to heat and/or more aware of the dangers.
This article doesn't belong in a scientific journal. Maybe a political journal or a comic book.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this