Area teams face toughest opponent yet

OAKWOOD, Ohio (WDTN) - As the sun climbs higher at the home of the Lumberjacks, the team has found itself up against a tough opponent.

It's nearly impossible to block, even the best wide outs can't seem to shake it, and it's always pressuring the quarterbacks.

It's the heat and it can beat even the best of teams.

"It's pretty hot out here," says Oakwood Senior Safety Logan Jervis. "It's tough."

So like any good football team, Oakwood starts with a solid game plan for its two practices a day.

It calls for a heavy dose of H2O.

"Drink a lot of water," Jervis says. "You've got to pour a lot of water on your head. It's going to cool down your body temperature."

But the fight to hydrate starts long before the first whistle ever blows.

"If they're hydrated coming in then they're two steps ahead of the game and it's better off for them," says Corey Whipple with Kettering Sports Medicine, who is also Oakwood's trainer.

Preparing to take on the heat requires some advanced scouting.

That's where the digital sling psychrometer comes in.

It's a quarterback's term for something that measures temperature and humidity.

"If it gets up to a certain heat index more breaks, longer breaks, and shorter practice time.

If it gets too hot, a heat index of 104, the Ohio High School Athletic Association forces you to forfeit to the weather and cancel practice.

A far cry from the old days where you toughed it out.

"When I was in school you had to take salt pills and weren't allowed to have water," says Oakwood Coach Rick Robertson. "Those are two of the worst things that could happen."

Nowadays the players have an ice bath waiting for them, but what hasn't changed is that teams are still forged in the fires of August.

"It makes you tougher," says Oakwood Senior Wide Receiver Austin Erbe. "The first few games are going to be in this heat so you gotta get used to it."