You survived the summer of 2011. It was a summer of miserable heat that the Weather Channel proclaimed as the Number One worst summer all over the U.S.
It was a summer that mentally transported people to deserts, the parched places of the world, gasping for a drop of water.
It was a summer that kept people inside where the unbearable rays of sun couldn’t touch them. It kept everyone inside except summer athletics, the marching band, and the colorguard.
Football two-a-days had to be rescheduled to the mornings rather than afternoons.
“We got [practice] done before it started getting majorly hot,” Coach Bill Davison said. “With the mandate that came down from the school district, we had to shut down practice once it got above a certain temperature.”
The policy for 100 degree weather to end outside practice for all WFISD activities was put into place as Wichita Falls set triple digit heat records and student health came into question. The marching band, too, kept practices to the morning because of the new rule.
“We made sure we were not outside past about 10:30 because that’s when the temperature would sky-rocket from 90 to 100 degrees,” assistant band director Michael Walta said.
Each student had a different way to deal with the record setting triple digit temperature.
“I drank a ton of water and ate healthy food, like lots of fruit,” colorguard member Jennifer Patton said.
Football was also very aware of getting the athletes enough to drink.
“We had water breaks every 15 minutes and our trainers Coach Brown and Coach Winkles did a great job of making sure everybody stayed hydrated,” Davison said.
As the months turned into the fall, things seem to be cooling off a bit. Rain has come back to Texas at least twice, and outside activities are beginning to feel the effects of welcome relief.
“It’s easier to breathe because the humidity’s not as bad.” Patton said. “When it’s cooler, [practice] is a lot easier.”
Also, because of that small bit of rain, a football player who gets sacked may get a helmet full of mud rather than a face-plant into short yellow-ish spikes of dead grass.