LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – High school playoffs are in full swing.

And it coincides with a sizzling change in the weather.

Student athletes are among the many looking for ways to cope with the heat.

It’s playoff week for the Northampton Area High School Konkrete Kids. But as the playoff chase is heating up, so are the temperatures. The players are practicing in 90-plus weather, and for senior Ro Echevarria, her high school career is coming to a close with some of the warmest weather she’s played in.

“When we went down to Tennesseem, it was raining and snowing. Cold down there, but it’s still the same thing still the same mind set so the heat doesn’t really matter to us,” said Echevarria, who plays third base.

The Konkrete Kids are hitting their water bottles as frequently as the softballs.

Their coach says practicing in heat can be harder than games, because there are fewer breaks.

“But it’s hard going from our first game 30 degrees going to like 90 degrees at the end of the season, so the process is like up and down, so we have to just be ready for all of it,” said Head Coach Kristy Henritzy.

Meanwhile, over in Allentown, there’s no time to play. Work still needs to be done.

Jaime Levano, who works sanitation for the Parks and Rec Department, is doing his rounds emptying all of the bins in the city.

“No choice, no choice, but this is great. I like hot weather,” Levano said.

Others are cooling off by jet skiing on the Lehigh River, While Lilly Amabui brought her son, Nessi, to Bucky Boyle Park, hoping the splash pad would be open. Sorry Nessi, it opens on Saturday.

“It was a hot day. We were trying to find something to do instead of sitting in the house,” Amabui said. “I know he likes water, so we were coming here hoping that it was open.”

Back at Northampton High, hours in the sun helps the athletes get re-acclimated to playing in the heat.

“I mean it’s really shocking when you have to deal with it. It’s always like these last two weeks or three weeks of the season it starts to get hot. I say it’s scorching. It’s a scorcher,” said Coach Henritzy.

The K-Kids Softball playoffs begin on Thursday. While sun and heat are the beginning of this week, rain could be a challenge for the second half of the week.