‘No reason for the risk’: Parents worry as youth sports play on during extreme KC heat wave
Ashlie Thomas was nervous for her 13-year-old son to play soccer through a heat wave that began Saturday in the Kansas City area.
Her son Rhys’ club soccer team from Emporia was scheduled to compete in two games on Saturday, when an excessive heat advisory went into effect that will last through Thursday with temperatures expected to exceed 100 degrees each day.
Since her son is a goalkeeper, he typically doesn’t run as much as the other kids and doesn’t have a substitute on his small team. But on Saturday, Rhys was active — leaping and diving to stop balls while wearing extra padding and large gloves in the heat.
Toward the end of the first game, he fell trying to stop a ball and couldn’t stand up.
At the medical tent, Thomas’ husband told her Rhys looked sweaty and pale. Several kids around him were also treated for heat-related illnesses.
They iced his shoulders, neck and groin for around 30 minutes and had him sit under a cooling fan. On the way home, he threw up twice in the family’s van.
“If he had thrown up one more time, I would’ve taken him to the hospital,” Thomas said. “It was just unhealthy. He was just lethargic, and it was kind of scary seeing this 13-year-old who’s such an active person feel this way.”
‘Is it really worth the risk?’
A field official told the Thomas family that his heat gun registered the turf around 128 degrees that day at Compass Minerals Sporting Fields in Kansas City, Kansas, about 17 degrees hotter than the air temperature at the time. Kids told their parents that it felt like their feet were burning through their shoes, Thomas said.
The Heartland Soccer Association — the largest soccer league in the U.S. that hosts games and tournaments for more than 1,300 teams across several fields in the metro area — took some precautions Saturday. Officials shortened playing time for all age groups and added an additional water break during games.
On Sunday morning, Heartland announced that games scheduled to start at 1 p.m. or later would be rescheduled at all fields, but parents said they didn’t know of any consistent policy the organization had regarding dangerous heat.
During excessive heat, the National Weather Service warned that children are one of the groups most at risk of developing heat-related illnesses.
Other organizations have guidelines for when outdoor athletic activities should be canceled or postponed. U.S.A. Soccer recommends canceling or postponing outdoor training in the Kansas City area if air temperatures reach 92 degrees or higher, and the Missouri State High School Activities Association recommends games or practices be postponed or rescheduled if heat index values are above 105 degrees.
According to the National Weather Service, the heat index reached 107 degrees Saturday and 119 degrees Sunday.
Dr. David Smith, Medical Director of the Youth Sports Medicine Program at the University of Kansas Health System, said he encourages athletic trainers and other officials to use apps that measure heat indices and the level of risk athletes may be exposed to.
As the heat index moves into the yellow or red zones, practices and games should be stopped or moved to an air-conditioned area.
Athletes need to stay hydrated, but after about an hour, they’ll need electrolyte replacements with high sodium levels to replace the fluids and salt they’ve lost, Smith said.
Some individuals are also at greater risk even when temperatures are lower, depending on existing medical conditions and medications they take.
Rather than the time of day, Smith said it would be safer for organizations to make decisions on practices and games based on the temperature, humidity and other weather factors at that moment.
It’s also important for team officials and parents to know the signs of heat-related illness, including headaches, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps and confusion.
Dr. Kayla Donnawell, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, said staffers are seeing more kids coming in with heat-related illnesses this summer, likely because of heat waves that have hit the metro.
She said it’s important for parents to set boundaries for their kids’ outdoor exposure during excessive heat to keep them safe.
“Always be an advocate for your child,” Donnawell said. “If you’re concerned about them being out there, is it really worth the risk?”
‘Yesterday did not go well’
While kids tried to stay hydrated, there’s little opportunity for shade at area soccer fields. Trees are closer to the roads and parents said most facilities ban them from pitching tents because it could damage the turf.
Before the game, Thomas said she tried to keep her son hydrated and take precautions to minimize risk in the heat. Her husband brought a jug of Gatorade for the team to share. They considered pulling Rhys from the game beforehand but worried that on a team with only one or two subs, they would be forced to play even longer in the heat.
Jason Pendleton, the executive director of the soccer club KC Fusion, said his organization decided to pull their teams from Sunday’s game after hearing from coaches about a handful of players and referees who needed medical attention because of the heat before Heartland’s decision.
“In collaborating with our directors and communicating with coaches, it became very obvious that yesterday did not go well,” he said. “That the number of, whether it be players, who were struggling with heat or referees or fans was far more than ever should happen.”
Fusion also communicated their worries about the safety risks with Heartland and several other clubs. Pendleton doesn’t know if his call pushed Heartland to change its schedule, but he said it was fortunate they decided to reschedule games later in the day.
Pendleton, who also works as a high school soccer coach in Kansas, said there are stricter policies that require them to cancel games and practices if heat index is too high. Games and practices would be canceled, he said, if heat index values reached 105 degrees or higher.
The soccer community, he said, often cancels games and practices because of cold temperatures or lightning, and Pendleton thinks there should be a similar standard on hot days, given the risks of heat-related illnesses.
‘Not anything here at stake’
Abby Albers’ 11-year-old son played flag football followed by soccer for Kansas City Scott Gallagher on Saturday and was sick later from heat exhaustion, she said. Her kids are young and always want to show up for their team and play their hardest, even if they don’t feel their best.
Isa Ramos, another mother whose kids play for KCSG, said her son couldn’t concentrate during Saturday’s game because he was worried about passing out after watching his friends get sick. KCSG has canceled practices because of heat when temperatures were far lower than they had been over the weekend, Ramos said.
Her son wants to keep playing, and she worries that, if he did feel sick, he wouldn’t tell his coach that he needs to rest.
While Heartland made some changes for players’ safety ahead of Sunday’s games, Thomas and other parents said they hope the organization will create stricter guidelines to cancel games amid heat waves.
Canceling games after 1 p.m. may help some players, she said, but her son and other players had fallen ill during Saturday’s noon game, and she doesn’t want to see more kids put at risk.
“I just feel like there’s not anything here at stake,” Thomas said. “I mean, it’s youth soccer. There’s no big national audience. There’s just no reason for the risk. You could have rescheduled these games for any other weekend.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2023 at 5:55 PM.
