Summer Football Workouts

Summer Football - Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer

On August 3, 2011, Michael Carvel of The Atlanta Journal Constitution (www.ajc.com) reported that two Georgia high school football players died on Tuesday, August 2, 2011. One of the players who passed away had spent more than a week in the hospital, as officials try to determine the effects of hot weather on both players.

Fitzgerald High School defensive lineman DJ Searcy died on the morning of August 2, 2011 following practice at a camp in northern Florida. According to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the 16-year-old was found unresponsive in his cabin by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.

Forrest Jones, Locust Grove High School offensive lineman passed away on the night of Tuesday, August 2, 2011, a family member told Channel 2 Action News . Jones passed out at a voluntary workout the week before. According to his family, physicians believe that Jones, 16, may have had a heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Jones collapsed the week before his death at a voluntary workout, which is not governed by GHSA rules and policies. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that most high school football teams have voluntary workouts for weightlifting, conditioning drills and 7-on-7 passing tournaments in June and July.

According to the Georgia High School Association, there had not been a heat-related death for a high school football player in Georgia in five years, until August 2, 2011.

The GHSA is the state’s governing body for high school athletics. Michael Carvel of The Atlanta Journal Constitution (www.ajc.com) reports that the GHSA mandated that all member schools develop their own heat policies after the death of Rockdale County football player Tyler L. Davis after a voluntary workout Aug. 1, 2006. The GHSA also suggested the use of a heat-index rating or wet-bulb temperature to determine whether practices should be held or modified because of extremely high temperatures.

Monday, August 1, 2011 was the GHSA’s first official day of football practice in helmets and pads.

According to the AJC article, GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin said “[Our heat policy] does not address voluntary football workouts over the summer, although we do encourage that schools do this. In fact, it is my understanding that Locust Grove High School takes a wet-bulb reading before every one of the voluntary workouts over the summer, including the one where the young man went down.”

Michael Carvel reports that the GHSA may develop a more stringent and more uniform heat policy in the near future and that University of Georgia researchers are in the final stages of a three-year study on heat risks associated with high school athletics.

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