Wet bulb brings safety to Tampa high school football fields

How Hillsborough High keeps its players cool

Handling the heat at Hillsborough High School is a little easier thanks to their use of a wet bulb globe thermometer (WBGT).

TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough High football coach Earl Garcia has seen a lot of change in his 48 years in coaching, but nothing like these last two seasons. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a lot to tackle, but on top of it comes dealing with weather restrictions.

Handling the heat is a little easier thanks to their use of a wet bulb globe thermometer (WBGT).

"It comes out with a number, a quotient that the trainers tell us where and when we can practice," said Garcia. "If it gets to a certain point, we can't practice more than 60 minutes and it has to be with no padding on whatsoever."

Terriers trainer Josue Morales is in charge of putting the WBGT to work at every practice. It’s a way to test heat stress, measuring temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover.

"When we sweat, it's not us cooling ourselves down. It's when that water actually dissipates that cools us down," explained Morales. "After a certain temperature, say the wet bulb is at 95, we only have a few hours that we can't dissipate that heat. So we're just too hot and we'd literally die."

Football is all about numbers, but it's not the scoreboard that determines whether players can be on the field. It's the wet bulb, which cannot exceed 92 degrees. Throughout the summer, many practices have been halted.

"Every day," said Gracie. "Every day -- what's it look like?  How's it going? What's plan B? What's plan C?"

Garcia is all in favor of players’ safety, but seeing Morales walking towards him, he's just looking for good news.

"We've had to be real careful with hydration," added Garcia. "It's just another thing that we've had to overcome."