A heatwave is encroaching on Los Angeles County and it has high school sports programs sweating for more reasons than one.
State legislation has created more defined regulations for heat illness and air quality index protocols, meaning all CIF schools are following the CIF’s new Heat Illness Prevention and Heat Acclimatization policies this fall sports season.
Temperatures are expected to reach or surpass triple digits across Los Angeles County and especially in the West San Fernando Valley this week.
“Everyone’s got to be very vigilant now that it’s a state law,” Dick Dornan, CIF Los Angeles City Section Sports Information Director, said. “We basically told our schools to be proactive, be aware. We sent them the extreme weather policy PDF, the state policies.”
Assembly Bill 1653, passed in 2023, requires the CIF to develop guidelines, procedures and safety standards to help prevent heat illness. The CIF has since required schools to use a WetBulb Globe Temperature device to measure heat stress in direct sunlight.
The device monitors temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover (solar radiation). High schools across California are sorted into three different categories with accompanying guidelines for each.
There are three color-coded stages (green, yellow, orange and red) before a sports activity must be canceled. In the red stage, contests can take place with hydration breaks. Outdoor practices can be held, but no protective equipment (like football pads) can be worn and no conditioning activities can take place.
In the black stage, no games are permitted until a cooler WBGT stage is reached.
Local football teams have already altered game times for Friday night varsity games in anticipation of a black WBGT reading. Agoura, Granada Hills Charter and Chaminade have all moved games to 7:30 p.m. and Sierra Canyon has moved its Saturday night contest against St. John Bosco to 7:30 p.m.
Finding the right zone
The new regulations have been especially frustrating for Chaminade and other San Fernando Valley schools that were originally placed in Category 1 in the CIF WBGT classifications. Category 1 includes coastal schools like Santa Monica High School and Los Angeles schools like Loyola.
“The intention we have no problem with,” Chaminade athletic director Todd Borowski said. “We are all about kids safety. It’s just frustrating to be zoned coastal when we’re not even close to being coastal.”
Borowski said that it’s rare Chaminade can have full practices and that the football team typically starts on the grass baseball field, which is cooler than the artificial turf of the football field. The school has also canceled two straight field hockey games due to WBGT readings.
Chaminade and other valley schools are being rezoned to Category 2, but are still carefully documenting data regarding how many practices and games have been moved to send to the CIF so that accurate categories can be reached.
Documenting WBGT readings is also critical for liability purposes.
“The last thing you want to do is not adhere to the state law and do your own thing,” Dornan said. “God forbid something tragic happens and there’s a lawsuit or something legally comes down the line. If you have no documentation and you made your own personal decisions over a state law, that will not turn out well.”
Adapting to a new schedule
Practicing according to WBGT readings can be complicated for schools that have to divide field time between sports.
For example, Agoura football had to move Wednesday’s practice to nighttime. Girls flag football is playing that night, meaning the tackle football team needs to find a location for practice during its new time.
Schools in sun-soaked areas like Paraclete, which is in the Antelope Valley, are already familiar with heat-related challenges.
Temperatures had reached over 100 degrees around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, but head football coach John Perez had already implemented a practice schedule that allows the team to work around the weather and train under the stadium’s new lights.
“It’s always hot up here, so for us it’s not anything that’s out of the ordinary,” Perez said. “We practice later when it starts to cool down anyways, so we have a night practice (on Wednesday). Once the wind picks up out here it’s a little bit better.”
Schools and athletic programs are equipped and prepared to deal with the extreme heat conditions this week. Teams are remaining flexible with times and locations and learning from the process — after all, the spring sports season could see temperatures equally as high.
Related Articles
Daily News Girls Athlete of the Week: Reese Tamburro, Agoura
Daily News Boys Athlete of the Week: Gavin Gray, Agoura
Daily News football Top 10 (plus 5 more to watch) in Week 2
Daily News football schedule: Week 2 games, Sept. 5-7
Daily News wrap-up: Friday’s high school football stories, scores and more
