Where there are summer baseball and softball games there’s going to be heat.
The safety and well-being of the girls and boys who play Iola Recreation summer league games are foremost on their minds, said Iola Recreation Director Brad Yoder and assistant director Jake Lawrence.
“We were monitoring the temperatures and heat index all afternoon,” Yoder said of Monday’s weather. “We knew it was something we needed to take a look at. At 4 o’clock the heat index was around 105 to 106.
“It appeared it was not going to be at 115.”
Lawrence pointed out that the recreation department uses a policy, which both men thought was in place, from information by the American College of Sports Medicine of Indianapolis, Ind. He said the department’s policy followed much the same one as the Kansas State High School Activities Association has on heat.
“The state high school association and the YMCA uses the American College of Sports Medicine information. The heat index of 115 plus other options we have came from that,” Lawrence said.
Unbeknownst to Lawrence and Yoder, the policy had not been approved by city leaders.
Lawrence said games had already started on two of the ball diamonds Monday. He said the department did not have water coolers at each field, which it should have, nor did it decide to shorten the length of games.
The other stipulation they both agreed on was that catchers could be behind the plate for only two consecutive innings each game. A player can catch the first two innings, move to another position and go back to catching the next inning, Yoder said.
“We hadn’t had an incident or complaint about the heat come into our office. We weren’t aware of any problem until the police chief was sent out to send everybody home Monday,” Yoder said. “We’re about the safety of the kids and were aware of the heat.”
Yoder and Lawrence said the department has a weather policy in place for rainouts and lightning. A recommendation for a heat policy was taken to the city council last year by the former rec director Luke Bycroft, Yoder said.
“We found out (Tuesday) morning that the council never acted on the policy. We are re-visiting it, improving it and finalizing it so it will be in place for next season,” Yoder said after meeting with City Administrator Carl Slaugh.
As for the rest of this summer season, the schedules have been revised. No games begin before 8 o’clock each night starting with Tuesday’s contests.
Most of the ball leagues were slated to wrap up by the end of this week. Several league tournaments will extend into next week.
Lawrence, who is in charge of the ball programs this season, said he would have rather had a delay in games Monday night instead of a complete stoppage. He said they could have pulled the teams off the fields and waited 30 or 40 minutes “like we do with lightning.”
