If you don’t know what it stands for, you should
With the summer months approaching, I am reminded of a specific incident that could have ended in tragedy during my youth-sports experiences decades ago. I was 16 years old and participating in pre-season football practice. It was August in Florida, so I don’t have to convince you that it was already a dangerous situation with the high heat and humidity. The team was halfway through a scheduled two-hour practice when a number of my teammates started to show the effects of the heat. On almost every play, someone was getting dizzy or falling down from fatigue. The heat was miserable. But, instead of taking a break and making sure we were all hydrated, the overzealous assistant coach doubled down on the intensity and withheld a scheduled water break because none of us were playing at full speed.
Thankfully, no one died that day. Years later I realized how close we were to a tragedy. I remember complaining to my dad, who called the coach and read him the riot act. The next day the head coach talked anonymously of the “pansy who complained to his daddy,” but I didn’t care since we would be getting multiple water breaks during the remaining practices that summer.