Fans, players face heat as football season kicks off

Players with Shadow Hills High School hopped on a bus Friday afternoon to head to Perris High School. The game was originally scheduled to be a home game for Shadow Hills, but that had to change.

“Perris’ district has a heat thing where they can’t play in a certain degree of temperature, and we had kind of been going back and forth all day moving the start of the game back, then finally the principal of Perris stepped in and said it’s too hot,” said Ron Shipley, head coach for the Shadow Hills High School football team.

In Indio, temperatures were around 105 degrees at kick off time. The temperature in Perris was in the 90s.

“It’s crazy because I feel like that’s no reason, it’s not an excuse, because you really can’t do anything with the heat, the heat is the heat, you can’t change it so might as well just play through it,” said Jared Gibson, a running back for Shadow Hills.

“I really wanted to go and come see it, I was going to go home and get money so I could come to the varsity game,” said David Lopez, a student with Shadow Hills High School.

Meanwhile, in Palm Desert, Xavier Prep fans did what they could to deal with the heat while cheering on their team.

“We are making sweat towels for the guys so that they can get the sweat out of their eyes without wiping it with their arm which has sweat on it,” said Aspen Bodue, a senior with Xavier Prep.

“We stay in the shade, stay hydrated, we got these big fans spraying water, so it’s okay,” said Liz Vargas a senior with Xavier Prep.

DO YOU THINK IT’S OK TO HAVE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYERS HAVE GAMES WHEN THE TEMPERATURE IS IN THE TRIPLE DIGITS OR HIGH 90S? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW OR TALL JOE GALLI ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER!