The Childress High School football team recently posted a widely-seen photo on Instagram of a practice taking place on the dirt floor of a show barn.
The caption explained that they were there per the new UIL rules. The field was too hot.
The University Interscholastic League used to have recommended guidelines for schools around hot weather and athletic activity. But starting Aug. 1 of this year, those rules became mandatory.
Jon Poorman, high school sports coordinator for the Houston Chronicle, joined Texas Standard for a discussion.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Laura Rice: So these new rules break down acceptable activity by temperature, but it’s not just the temperature on somebody’s phone, it’s this wet bulb globe temperature. Can you explain what that is?
Jon Poorman: You know, the UIL made this a mandatory practice for the 2026/27 school year, but it’s been a recommended practice for the past two years. And so the vast majority of athletic programs across the state have already been implementing these guidelines.
Now, with the wet bulb globe temperature, obviously the coaches are very familiar with it at this point. It basically takes into consideration more than just the temperature and the humidity. It factors in things like wind speed and direct sunlight and all these other factors that make an environment feel how it feels in the heat.
And so really, in speaking with our our newsroom meteorologist Justin Ballard, he explained it to me in the terms of, you know, this is really the best measurement that you can use to get a real gauge on how hot it is and, more specifically, the heat stress on the body during exercise.
And so there are different levels, I understand, of recommended activity — or I guess now mandatory activity limits: whether they can practice at all, whether they wear pads… Could you talk about that a little bit?
So there’s different levels, there’s different colors. And so each color, as you go through them, it’s orange, red… Black means you basically can’t do anything outside. So there’s different levels and different readings that coaches have to be aware of, and they have to adjust their practices based on these readings.
So whichever zone the wet bulb globe temperature is in at the time, they have to take a certain number of water breaks, they have take extra precautions, they have to take off more equipment. Sometimes it’s helmets only, sometimes it’s just shoulder pads and helmets depending on which zone they’re in. There’s also limits to the amount of time that they can spend outside in one practice session.
The wet bulb globe temperature has definitely changed kind of the approach over the past couple of years and it’s something that they need to be aware of every time they get ready to go out for a practice.
So what have you heard from experts about whether these new rules are adequate to keep kids safe while practicing in the heat?
Yeah, well these rules were put together by the UIL Advisory Committee, and that’s a 10- or 12-person committee that is solely focused on creating guidelines and rules for the UIL.
These are medical professionals, and so the wet bulb globe temperature and all these mandates and all of these precautions that are put in place, these are coming from medical professionals who have the best interest and safety of the kids in mind when they’re doing that.
When they implemented it two years ago, most coaches were receptive. They obviously want to keep their kids safe, too, at the end of the day. They have to find different ways to adjust and get done what they need to get done.
I mentioned the Childress team in the show barn and I’ve seen another team at the Panhandle practicing in a church. Have you seen some sort of creative workarounds?
Yeah, not like that, not down in the Houston area. But no, I mean, those are perfect examples of teams and coaches being creative.
That’s something that UIL Athletic Director Ray Zepeda said during the coaches convention this summer, is that he has all the faith in the world that coaches are going to be able to figure it out and find a way to make things happen.
As I said before, they’ve been working with these guidelines for the past two years as well. And so one thing that really has come to the forefront in all of this is the need for indoor practice facilities. And obviously each district across Texas has a different situation financially or being able to get bonds passed to build these things. But for those that do have them, and we have a few here in the Houston area, it is a big advantage because you can work inside and on a turf football field and not have your practice interrupted by the heat.
So that’s something that I definitely think a lot of school districts are keeping an eye on and maybe exploring some avenues to try to get that done for themselves.
