Taking artistic liberty to modify Glen Frey's song, The Heat Is On....the football heat acclimatization is on and its on the street; its in your school and can't be beat....

After many weeks and months of talking, discussing, writing, editing; we finally have a doable, workable football heat acclimatization program that everyone in the state can live with and implement. A tip of the cap to Sam Elias, chairman of the Football Ad Hoc Critical Issues Committee, PIAA President, Jim Zack, and Chairman of the PIAA Sports Medicine Committee, Dr. Michael Cordas, Jr., for their leadership in the implementation of this policy.

Let's not minimize this. This is a herculean effort by the Board of Directors, the athletic directors, the football coaches, the football steering committee, the sports medicine committee and the schools' principals. All have weighed in on a process that puts the athletes' health and concerns first and foremost and they are to be commended for it.

The program in its most simplistic terms is the first three days of football practice commencing on the starting day - Monday, August 12th. Helmets and shoulder pads with shorts are permitted the first 2 days and full gear on third day with contact allowed on third day.

These practices are limited to 5 hours of practice daily for the 3 days of heat acclimatization. Practice sessions may be no longer than 3 hours in length and teams must have 2 hours of rest (recovery period) between practice sessions.

For more details and commonly asked questions on the Heat Acclimatization Program, please visit the PIAA website at;

http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/documents/Pre-season%20Heat-Acclimatization%20Guidelines%203_22_13_FB%20Committee.pdf

This policy was a minimum standard developed through the Board of Directors to address the heat problems in football that has, nationally, experienced 52 deaths since 1995 and 41 as the direct result of participation in high school football.

Three cheers for the PIAA Board of Directors! Putting athletes' health and safety, first and foremost. And with that we say to you......

Interscholastic athletics; learning lifetime lessons of fitness and good health habits.