HANCOCK COUNTY — High school athletic teams’ practices and schedules across Hancock County are being adjusted with postponements, delayed starts and cancellations due to excessive heat.
It has not been uncommon to have postponements and cancellations during the fall sports season due to weather, but the norm has been rain outs and rain delays and not related to heat indexes and high temperatures.
“We’ve had some crazy weeks, but to have this prolonged amount of heat is kind of unusual,” Greenfield-Central athletic director Jared Manning said.
Daytime temperatures for much of the week, and forecasted for most of the remainder of the week, are ranging from the mid-to-upper 90s with heat indexes reaching triple figures.
Tuesday was the third straight day of 90-plus degree temps.
A heat advisory for Hancock County and most of Central Indiana was in effect until 8 a.m. this morning and an excessive heat warning is in effect from 8 a.m. today to midnight Thursday night.
Heat index values on Tuesday were from 100 to 107 degrees and expected to be as high as 112 today and Thursday.
On Tuesday, New Palestine announced numerous schedule adjustments related to the significantly high temperatures.
Tennis matches Tuesday and today went from 5:30 p.m. start times to 7:30 p.m. The cross country teams have pulled out of the Arabian Roundup scheduled for today. And, Thursday’s girls soccer home match against New Castle has been postponed to a later date. New Castle called to postpone, Its school district has called off all Thursday outdoor events with the anticipation of it being the hottest day of the week.
Also on Tuesday, New Palestine’s boys soccer contest with Whiteland was a varsity only match and was changed from a 6 p.m. start time to 7:30 p.m.
“You run that balancing act. Safety is the most important thing, but kids want to play,” New Palestine athletic director Brian Murphy said. “You try to do what you can. We have pushed games back … We’ve bumped some things around and have had some extra water breaks.”
Friday night’s New Pal football game at Decatur Central has been moved from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The freshman football game at DC on Saturday has moved from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
“We’ve had to deal with (heat) before,” Murphy said. “I don’t know if it’s been as intense as this week.”
Greenfield-Central has canceled a junior varsity boys soccer match at Yorktown Thursday and moved the start time for varsity to 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday home tennis matches were moved one-hour to 90 minutes from original start times to relieve teams from playing in the heat of the day.
Manning said they’ll continue to monitor the situation the remainder of the week.
“It’s pretty miserable. When you have some schools (in Central Indiana) completely canceling everything, that shows you how serious it is,” Manning said. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure our kids are safe.”
At Mt. Vernon, Brandon Ecker said a lot of teams are modifying practice times and many have moved practices to the morning or turning after school practices to film sessions. They have also been adjusting by scheduling water breaks during contests and practices for every 20 minutes.
The Marauders are scheduled to host Franklin in a football game at 7 p.m. Friday. Ecker said a discussion on possibly changing the start time will come later in the week.
Eastern Hancock athletic director Aaron Spaulding said his teams have made a few minor changes with adjusting practice schedules and that they’re encouraging hydration to their student-athletes.
He added that with forecasts not showing any cooldown coming soon more precautions could be in the future.
“Thursday might be a different story,” he said.
