The Texas heat can turn a routine practice into a safety risk, and a new UIL heat stress policy is changing how schools determine when conditions are too dangerous for students to be outside.
At Flower Mound High School, Head Athletic Trainer Cody Jenschke is following the new heat stress playbook by tracking wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT, conditions in real time. The monitoring is designed to show how difficult it is for the body to cool itself and can help school officials determine when athletes need additional water and rest breaks — or when outdoor activity needs to stop altogether.
“I think it’s a way for us to participate safely and get kids into situations where you can have good quality practice,” Jenschke said.
Unlike air temperature alone, WBGT takes several environmental factors into account.
“The temperature is a part of that number, but the web bulb takes into account direct sunlight, wind, relative humidity outside. And that direct sunlight’s a very, very big part of that,” Jenschke said.
That’s one reason teams including the Flower Mound Jaguars now practice in the mornings, when conditions are cooler.
Jenschke and the UIL have been using Perry Weather’s WBGT system for the past two academic years, helping establish the new policy. The system monitors conditions on the field and alerts coaches as heat levels change.
“Our system is completely online in the field, reading those conditions and then alerting out to the coaches. Hey, you’re in this red zone now, orange zone, black zone, and exactly what you have to do when you get into those zones,” Perry Weather CEO and founder Colin Perry said.
Perry said WBGT monitoring also provides a better picture of how athletes’ bodies respond to heat.
“It helps understand how the body produces sweat, which is the main catalyst to cool down our athletes,” Perry said.
While some parents have criticized the new UIL heat protocols, school officials said their top concern is student safety.
“You’re having better quality practices because you’re not out in the heat and we’re not having to worry about kids falling out,” Jenschke said.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.