PHOENIX - Fans enjoy the fun and excitement of high school football by rooting for their favorite teams.
But it's what happens before game night that led the ABC15 Investigators to check out after-school practices at five Valley schools.
The Arizona heat - alone - is tough for anyone.
Add helmets and all that gear, and it can turn a regular practice into a trip to the emergency room.
Max Gilpin, 15, of Kentucky was one of four children who died from heat stroke last year while at high school football practice.
National sports organizations have tracked more than 120 child deaths at football practices since 1960.
Dr. Michael Levine works in the ER at Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix. Dr. Levine said no water and all that gear can be a deadly combination.
“It is certainly a major risk factor," said Dr. Levine, “It certainly has the potential to be deadly.”
How deadly? Every year, three national leading football associations join forces to study the problem and make recommendations.
Click here to view their researchTheir recommendations include giving players 15-minute rest periods, having shaded area available, and taking their helmets off when they aren't scrimmaging.
When the ABC15 Investigators checked these recommendations at five Arizona schools, none of those national recommendations were followed.
Why? Schools are not required to follow these rules.
Immersion tanks are also recommended to bring down the body’s temperature.
No school we checked had that either, even though the same thing can be accomplished by just filling a child's plastic pool.
The Arizona school districts and coaches where we visited told us they do take heat stroke seriously.
In fact, each district has its own policy.
But we found that, occasionally, the schools didn't comply with their own rules.
One of the rules at Deer Valley High School is that water breaks happen every 10 to 15 minutes when the temperature is over 100 degrees. But on the day we were there, we saw it arrive 20 minutes after practice began. It was 110 degrees outside that afternoon.
Players at Scottsdale's Saguaro High School are supposed to take off their helmets and pads when they are not scrimmaging. We watched as they ran laps and did push-ups in full gear.
And Chandler High School athletes are supposed to get a water break every 15 to 20 minutes. We watched some athletes go 40 minutes without water.
Jim Ewan is a coach at Chandler High School.
He said, “Our kids have water available right next to them most of the time.”
We told him that we saw some kids go 40 minutes without water and he said, if that happened, it would need to be fixed.
There is some good news here. Our investigation found many schools being cautious.
Most of the time, players had a lot to drink.
We watched Chandler players exercising without pads and helmets.
And on the day we went to Deer Valley High, athletes scrimmaged without pads.
So, what's the policy to protect kids in your district?
Most of the district in our story provided their policies on heat related practice.
We've posted them below, along with notes from our undercover investigation.
Here are the policies from additional school districts in the Valley:
Peoria Unified School District's policy
Gilbert Unified School District's policy
Agua Fria Union High School District
Deer Valley High School policy, notes
Camelback High Schools policy, notes
Chandler High School policy, notes
Saguaro High School policy, notes
Glendale High School policy, notes
