This year Central Virginia saw a record number of days with dangerous heat indexes and little relief from either rain or cooler temperatures. While the sustained period of hot, dry weather caught everyone’s attention, Lee-Davis strength and conditioning coach Mike Craven hopes it also opened the eyes and ears of athletes, parents and administrators.

  Craven has been a vocal advocate of taking a proactive approach when it comes to circumventing heat related issues with athletes. Last summer he started Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) testing at Lee-Davis to find who were most susceptible to Exertional Heat Stroke (EHS) by determining each athlete’s physical ability to dissipate heat.

  Craven’s efforts are part of a continually growing emphasis on heat-related issues in the United States.  Each year doctors, scientists and trainers continue to study and adapt what they believe are the causes of EHS in athletes. And yet, while coaches and athletic trainers across the country increase acclimation periods and water breaks while decreasing high temperature workouts, athletes continue to die.

  Since the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, three high school football players have died in the United States. In two of the cases, EHS has been determined as the cause of death while in the third the autopsy has yet to be completed.

  No longer is it accepted that simply a lack of water during practice is the sole cause of EHS deaths. “We’ve come some way since year’s ago when water was restricted, but we’ve got just as many dying,” Craven said. “This is still happening and we’re seeing the coaches are having water on the field.

  “We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heat related deaths can occur without being dehydrated,” Craven said. “And I think that’s a message that has to wake people up. We’ve done a good job of letting them know that hydration is one of the causes, but if there’s multiple causes that’s coming from the experts, it’s not known well enough in our communities.”

  Craven is further troubled because he feels EHS deaths should never occur in athletes. “If the medical field says it’s 100 percent preventable, then we’ve got to sit there and say, ‘what are we doing well, what are we still not doing well?’” he said. “And, who are the people that come into involvement and make it happen.

  “Right now, there are not enough people in leadership positions that are taking this to heart,” Craven said. “Some are and I applaud them like no tomorrow.”

  For Craven, education is the greatest tool in preventing EHS and such begins with the athletes and their parents. “What I see is a lack of involvement from the parents,” Craven said. “The parents drop the kids off at school and they think the school has 100 percent responsibility to take care of them. The truth is, you’ve got to be more informed about what is true and what is not.

  “I think parents today need to be totally involved in this learning process to help move it forward,” he said. “If you ask 9-out-of-10 parents what a MET score is they don’t even know what it is. So their interpretation is, we’ve got an athletic trainer at the school, we’ve got coaches at the school, my child is being looked after.”

  But Craven pointed out that some conditions leading to EHS begin at home through lack of education. “Suppose a kid is eating a diet that’s low in carbohydrates,” Craven said. “His parents are completely unaware that’s not acceptable. Then the kid shows up for practice, because there’s a minimum value of carbohydrates that has to be consumed for cell hydration to complete.”

  Television has also contributed misleading and what Craven considers dangerous misinformation about weight loss. “Nine out of 10 Americans believe that weight loss is from fat cell reduction,” Craven said pointing out that it is impossible to lose beyond one quarter to a pound and a half of weight in a week due to fat cell reduction. “You’re at home watching a health show that’s showing overweight people losing 20 pounds a week and everybody’s applauding them. It still belittles that anything can happen to you losing 6 pounds. But at the same time you lost 6 pounds which is two percent dehydration that’s manipulative weight loss.”

  Another item on Craven’s list attributing to EHS is increasing use of supplements and stimulant drinks such as Red Bull, Monster, etc. On Sept. 22 the VHSL passed an emergency resolution to ban the use of energy drinks during practices or events in Virginia.

  “Here’s an organization that’s providing leadership to say, ‘the instances of heat related illness and what’s considered energy enhancing drinks- there’s a correlation,” Craven said.

  But Craven also believes that the energy drinks are just another contributing factor and administrators need to take a closer look at the wider picture.

  “If I’m on a stimulant that’s a grade under a legal amphetamine, on top of that I’m eating a low carb diet because I’ve noticed other people who are losing weight rapidly from it,” Craven said. “There’s multiple factors that can lead to these consequences and we’re shaking our heads and calling it a tragedy. Well, is it really a tragedy?”

  For Craven, MET testing identifies physical deficiencies that are not apparent to the eye. Recently, he conducted MET testing on the grandfather of a Lee-Davis football player. “He was at 22 milliliters,” Craven said. “Now 22 milliliters, even for his age, is very poor.”

  But Craven also pointed out that he has tested several football players who also register in the 20s. “So if (that grandfather) showed up in a helmet and said, ‘hey Coach I’m going to practice with the young men,’ obviously nobody’s going to let a 60-year-old man practice football…We’ve got a bunch of young men in the 20s that are no different than that man right there.”

  Craven does not want to see an instance of, ‘if we’d only known more,’ therefore he continues to talk with coaches and trainers across the Commonwealth about EHS prevention. However, at the same time he has diversified his message.
  Former Hanover County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney and current President of Allen, Allen, Allen and Allen law firm Doug Barry has joined Craven to speak on the legal ramifications in athletics when it comes to EHS.

  The legal liability of coaches gained national attention last summer when Pleasure Ridge Park (KY) High School’s Jason Stinson became the first coach to be criminally charged in the heat-related death of 15-year-old football player Max Gilpin.

  As an ex-FBI agent and ex-prosecutor, Barry has a diverse understanding of both criminal and civil law in Virginia. With the local law firm, Barry has also spent much time at seminars and public engagements lecturing on legal responsibilities. “I do a lot of speaking on immunity to public servants and things like that,” he said. “This kind of ties in with that.”

  While Barry’s expertise concentrates on Virginia law, he pointed out that any coach, trainer or assistant coach deemed negligent in a case of EHS would probably be immune to prosecution. “It has to rise to a higher standard of gross negligence,” he said.

  Likewise, ignoring standard procedures and available information such as denying athletes water could lead to gross negligence charges. “There’s no room for interpretation of that the lack of water, dehydration causes death, would rise to the level of gross negligence on the civil side and on the criminal side.”

  But above all else, both Barry and Craven do not want to see an athlete dying because every means of prevention has not been taken.

  “We want to get out in front of everybody,” Craven said. “This whole thing is to say; ‘All right, if it didn’t happen in our community, don’t act like it can’t happen because where it’s happening the coaches were just as good of coaches as what we have here.”

  The pair have already made a short presentation before the Henrico County School Board and are attempting to set up a more in-detail presentation to the Hanover County School Board.