Story by: Lauren Baker
The past few weeks have been extremely hot for the athletes practicing outside, with the temperature being in the eighties and nineties. All the teams practicing outside have been affected in one way or another.
For example, the varsity golf team only plays four holes, instead of nine, when it gets too hot. The JV golf team has not practiced a few times when it gets too hot, but one player on the football team has been greatly affected by the harsh heat.
Jacob Williamson is a junior on the football team; he was at practice getting ready for the Liberty game when he started feeling light headed and dizzy. Williamson was taken to the hospital where he was unresponsive for eighteen hours; he stopped breathing for fifteen minutes during this time.
When Williamson woke up he was told that he was lucky to still be alive. “They told me everything from my body temperature, 106.6, and how close I was and just kind of how lucky I had been,” said Williamson.
Williamson now has to go and get blood tests every week. Williamson has not been released to any physical activity yet “Eventually I’ll be released into physical activity; hopefully get back to football pretty soon,” said Williamson.
Although the heat greatly affected Jacob Williamson, some teams have been lucky to be mildly affected by the heat. Softball coach, James Williams, said “The heat has been an inconvenience, but not too bad.” The softball team just takes a lot of water breaks and breaks in the shade. Sometimes they will have shortened practice.
The heat the past few weeks has greatly and mildly affected athletes and their teams.
