Wondering why a high school sporting event was canceled on a hot day without any other weather variables? Check out the new MIAA Heat Modification Policy.
The policy — which was adopted Jan. 16, 2019 and went into effect July 1, 2019 — is a way to ensure that sporting events or practices will not be held if a playing surface reaches a specific Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT).
What is the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature? There’s a complicated definition that only science majors might understand, but it’s essentially a thermometer that takes wind speed, humidity, due point, UV index, etc. into effect and creates the true temperature outside. The MIAA Heat Modification Policy states that a WBGT reading of over 86.1 degrees results in the cancelation of an event, or a delay until the reading drops below 86.1 degrees.
It also requires schools to have a maximum of one hour of activity if the WBGT reading is between 84.1 and 86 degrees, and a maximum of two hours if the reading is between 81.1 and 84 degrees.
The policy only applies to MIAA sports in the state.
With no spring season in 2020 due to COVID-19, not many fans are aware of the policy change, though those who coached or played high school football in 2019 are surely aware of it as they would have to consistently take the WBGT reading during August and early September practices or games.
Franklin County got its first real taste of the policy on Wednesday, as Turners Falls, Athol, Franklin Tech and Frontier all canceled games with heat and thunderstorms expectated.
“It’s a policy the MIAA has so we have to follow it,” Athol athletic director Dan Bevis said. “We take the reading and go with what’s in place by the policy. It’s only going to get warmer as this spring season goes on, so we’re trying to let people know why we have to cancel or postpone a game even if it’s a nice day out. There’s so many factors that go into it. It’s not as simple as, ‘It’s raining out, it’s going to keep raining so we’ll reschedule.’ Now you’re relying on a piece of equipment for what you can and can’t do.”
Each game, meet or match can have a completely different set of circumstances. For Turners and Frontier, holding a tennis match on a 90-degree day proved to be nearly impossible Wednesday when factoring in how much hotter it is on the black top court than it would be on a grassy field.
Athol was forced to cancel its softball game as the index was too high. There was also the threat of thunderstorms in the North Quabbin region. The Bears still had held a volleyball and wrestling match on Wednesday, as both events were contested inside Mallet Gymnasium with the WBGT reading below 84 degrees.
“There’s just different instances, different playing surfaces that all need to be taken into account,” Turners Falls AD Adam Graves said. “If [on Wednesday] it was just going to be hot or just going to be a thunderstorm, we might have tried to play and see what happened, but where it was both, it just didn’t make sense. For practices when we’re below the index, the kids will go inside where it’s cool and take breaks when needed. You just have to be smart about it.”
When the policy went into effect, there was no way to predict a global pandemic would delay the 2021 spring sports season. In a normal year, this would be the final week of the regular season for high school sports. The postseason would start the first week of June.
Due to the pandemic and a four-season calendar used by the MIAA, this spring season started later and the regular season will run through June 15. The MIAA implemented sectional and state tournaments as well this spring, and those could potentially run into July. With summer still not yet here and temperatures likely only going up over the next month, cancellations and postponements may only become more common.
“We’re usually seeding teams this week and playing tournament games next week,” Graves said. “You can work around the couple teams in the tournament with more open dates but everybody still playing in the regular season? That’s a lot harder.”
As if rescheduling games wasn’t a difficult enough challenge, doing so with so many end-of-year celebrations, award ceremonies and graduations only further complicates getting all the games contested.
“We’re in a situation here where next week is basically out the window besides one day,” Bevis explained. “You’re limited on open dates and getting close to the [regular season] cutoff date. We take [Wednesday’s] game and push it back and now that takes a day out in June. These are things we haven’t had to think about. You take into account limited dates and stuff like that, it makes things challenging but it’s about keeping the kids safe.”
Turners Falls is one of the few schools in Franklin County with outdoor lights available for baseball and softball, giving it the ability to push games later in the day when the WBGT would drop.
“It’s not as much of a problem here because we can play at night,” Graves said. “If it’s a June 23, 1 p.m. softball game, that could be an issue.”
Other schools aren’t able to delay games until the sun sets.
“We don’t have the option to push games to night,” Bevis said. “We’ll try to push the games to five or six o’clock but then you’re still taking readings and dealing with the heat so there’s no guarantee by then that the temperature will be at a playable level.”
Stay tuned, as Wednesday likely won’t be the last time you hear or read about WBGT before the high school season concludes.