By Maya Reiner ’21 and Mia Diagnault ’20

The heat has taken a toll on the Staples’ sports teams these past few weeks. Many sports such as the football, cross country and soccer teams have suffered through playing in the excruciating weather.

The soaring temperatures up to 91 degrees resulted in less intense practices, many more water breaks and the rescheduling of games. The Staples field hockey team’s rematch of the 2017-2018 state finals was supposed to happen on Sept. 6, but it was rescheduled due to the temperature and incoming weather. The staff believed that the heat advisory was not safe to play in for the students.

Throughout this heat wave, the sports teams still continued to have practice. “While the soccer team was conditioning, many people did not feel well,” Riley Dembo ’21 said. “The heat really got to them.”

Throughout the days that the temperatures were boiling, the Staples Wreckers’ trainers were there for the athletes, providing them with the services they needed.  

The girls’ cross country team is one of the teams that still had practice during the heat wave. They did not run to the full extent during the heat advisory, but still had to push through the humidity and hot weather while running on the track. “Depending on the day, we would run the normal amount or we would have a heat advisory which meant we had to run in the shade or run a few laps on the track and then get water,” Ellie Kaplan ’21 said.

Along with Kaplan, several other team members are noticing the effects of the heat. “Multiple freshman girls have fainted this season and the first thing the coach does is call the trainer and get water,” Geena Abrams ’20 said. “It’s really only been inexperienced runners who have fainted so far because of such high intensity with so much heat.”

The coaches told the girls to make sure to stop running if they felt at all ill during their consistent runs. However, the heat still got to many people. “It was extremely hot when running and it was so difficult to breathe in the humidity,” Kaplan said.

Laddie Lawrence, the boys’ cross country coach, explains his accommodations with heat advisory warnings. Not only does he shorten runs, but the team also has shade intervals and finds shady routes for the runners.