Eight days til Region IV referees convene in Phoenix. Scheduling is a bit different this year because of the Phoenix heat. Looking through the schedules, it appears game times will be 7:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 7:00 PM, and 9:00 PM. Should be fun to do games under the lights at Reach 11! PM me if you're going and would like to meet up.
Have fun with the 11:00am games! I was there last year for YN and we did 8:00am. 10:00am and 8:00pm. Getting off the fields at noon was a blessed relief.
For a laugh, I just checked the long range forecast for this tournament. I'm actually not laughing. Wow. 110 as a high. The nights games in the high 90's.
I feel extremely fortunate that I live here and am used to it, to say nothing of being chosen--very grateful for that.
Similar to Las Vegas in 2007. A small number of referees succumbed to the heat and were replaced. I remember all the high hopes of people wanting to make it to the finals. Me.... I wanted to make it home healthy!
I was assessing the U-16 boys semi-final there that was a disaster. 115 degrees "in the shade" and absolutely no shade. The referee started to lose it late in regulation. The game goes to overtime. After the Cal-South team goes up a couple of goals, a Nevada player gets sent off. This triggered a fight between the parents, which spilled onto the field, past a very surprised AR2! Game terminated. That's what you get when you schedule U-16 boys for 2 p.m. in Las Vegas. I hope the tournament committee has gotten smarter this year.
Our leaders are nuts to schedule regionals and nationals in Phoenix and Las Vegas in the summer. What are they thinking?
Time to start hydrating this week. I'm only drinking water from now on so I don't pass out on an 11 am or 7 pm game. Even last night, it was 99 degrees at 7 pm. It's going to be a long week.
I'll be at regionals again, in fact LaRikardo and myself will be on the same flight out of Utah. I've started to rehydrate yesterday. I don't want to have to experience heat stroke/exhaustion like I did all those years ago. Gaurented not to be a pleasant experience, I know from experience. Also will start to aclimtize myself by running in the afternoon heat.
Be careful out there guys, no one is looking out for the well being of the referee. 5 games on Satuday. It's only low 90's here, but it turns out I had an intestinal problem too. By the 3rd game I was patrolling the center circle. After the 4th game, I was at a Burger King, but I was too tired to eat my food and I took a nap right on the table. I started getting worried when after my nap I was still breathing heavily. I roll into my last game and collapse next to the CR, who is nice enough to offer me some water because I had stupidly left my water bottle in my car for the last game. I sleep through the pregame. By the middle of the first half as AR2 I had 3 or 4 parents ask me if I was ok and one gave me another bottle of water. I barely avoided falling over a couple times. Obviously I wasn't running very hard. I decided to gut it out because I trusted the CRs judgement on whether I was good to go and I felt obligated to at least show up at the game. In retrospect I'm pretty sure I was suffering from clinical heat exhaustion. Still recovering from the intestinal problem too.
This week??? You are already behind. I would also caution you to not drink ONLY water. Include low calorie sports drink as well.
Good point. There's apparently two types of heat exhaustion: water depletion and salt depletion. If you drink tons of water and nothing else, you rinse all the salt out of your body. http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/heat-exhaustion
One of the referees last year at YN drank only water after his 8:00am game and I held him as he had a seizure in the ER later that night. His sodium level was 106. Water alone will not cut it. You MUST replace electrolytes.
1/2 strength Gatorade is good NOT FULL STRENGTH. Drink consistently - even when you don't think you need to.
This is a great suggestion. I bring a water and Gatorade when I'm watching a game. I keep adding water to the Gatorade throughout the game.
I buy powered Gatorade at Walmart. A 51 ounce G-series container is about $9 and makes 6 gallons at recommended strengths. You can mix to your desired strength. I have a couple of 2 quart Nalgene bottles and a 1 gallon bottle that I mix it in. One of the Nalgene bottles is a narrow mouthed bottle. This makes it easier to drink when in the car: no sloshing out. Get a funnel to pour the Gatorade power into the bottle.
I am in Vegas for work this week. Went outside at lunch today, 101 degrees. I almost died walking across the street, I don't envy you western guys! stay safe!
If you want to save a few bucks it is a piece of cake to make your own sports drinks, using water, some orange juice, salt, salt substitute, etc. At least at my house, the ingredients are always on hand. Added bonus is that can call yourself an apothecary while you're crafting it.
Buying powdered Gatorade sounds easier. If I were to try this it would only be so I can add "apothecary" to my resume.
