The devastating consequences of extreme heat are no longer freak weather events but a dangerous new reality for young people. This past July, a 16 year-old in Memphis died from heatstroke after a football practice, and a 17-year-old in Houston spent a week in a coma following a training session.
As millions of children return to fall sports, these threats continue. A recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest has already canceled high school soccer games in Spokane, a grim sign of the new risks children face on the field.
We can’t shield kids from intense heat. But we can give them language, strategies, and confidence to recognize risks. Climate extremes are increasingly a part of childhood, and right now, we aren’t doing enough to help young people navigate this reality. Eighteen states don’t even require teaching human-caused climate change in science classrooms.
The reason for this increased climate risk is twofold: Children are developmentally more susceptible to heat, and their activity levels make them more vulnerable. The past decade has been the hottest on record, and climate change, fueled by the burning of fossil fuels, is making extreme heat more frequent and intense. According to a new report from Climate Central, a Gen Z child experiences four times as many extreme heat days as a Gen X child.
Despite this growing threat, current protections for young athletes are inconsistent and often inadequate. While organizations like the Korey Stringer Institute have developed promising policies which use factors like “wet bulb globe temperature” to assess risk and a tiered approach to modify practices, even the best guidelines can’t reach every field. Youth sports are decentralized, often operated through schools, local communities, or private entities, making consistent oversight challenging.
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A recent Aspen Institute report found that only 29% of youth coaches reported training in general injury prevention, and it’s unclear how much of that training covered heat safety specifically. This leaves a critical gap in knowledge on the field, especially when practice environments like gyms without air conditioning or turf fields, where temperatures can register 40 degrees hotter than grass, add to the danger.
And even when coaches are acquainted with the risks, kids themselves often don’t know about them, leaving children unable to recognize danger early or advocate for themselves.
For the past four years, I have coached my daughters’ recreational sports teams in lacrosse, basketball, and soccer. Despite coaching in different sports, leagues, and jurisdictions, I’ve never received any training on the risks of heat, early warning signs, or what to do if a player shows symptoms. Plus, we’ve never had athletic trainers or other health professionals at practices or games to help if concerns arise. But what we do have are dedicated parents, coaches, and players wanting kids to become the best athletes they can be—and that dedication can be a tool to help ensure safety if we know what to do.
Read more: How Climate Change Is Affecting the NFL
Just as we teach children to “stop, drop, and roll” for fire safety, avoid drunk driving, wear sunscreen, or buckle their seat belts, we must empower young athletes with the knowledge to stay safe in the heat. It’s up to parents, coaches, educators, and doctors to create a culture of heat safety by teaching kids (and each other) four essential directives:
Prepare: Before a hot practice or game, athletes must prepare by hydrating. This is especially critical during the season’s first hot days.
Speak up: Teach young athletes to recognize the early signs of heat illness—dizziness, nausea, a headache, or muscle cramps—and to speak up and tell a coach immediately. We also need to empower them to watch out for their teammates, spotting signs like confusion or fast breathing.
Sit out: In the heat of competition, it’s tempting to push through, but detecting and addressing early signs of heat illness is critical to preventing life-threatening heatstroke. We must normalize the need to sit out when your body tells you to stop.
Cool down: When you sit out, take a break in the shade, remove unneeded clothing, and use cold towels, ice packs, and water to cool down your body.
Our changing climate is rewriting childhood, and extreme heat is now a reality of every sports season. But by empowering young athletes to listen to their bodies and helping us all understand the risks, tragedy doesn’t have to be.
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