By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – With temperatures in the 90s and heat indices reaching over 100 in July and August, Cherokee County High School football coach Jacob Kelley and his staff are constantly harping on their players to keep hydrated and take care of their bodies outside of summer practices.
“We’ve got to be able to force feed them with what they need in between practices, and it’s hard to do when we’re not a college and we don’t see them when they leave us,” Kelley said. “They kind of have to handle the food aspect and the hydration (outside of practice), but in the season, it’s better controlled because we’ve got them all in house.”
On Monday, the Warriors had two scary lessons as to why it’s so important to make sure your body is acting properly.
Two players – junior Nate Black and senior Keyshawn Woods – suffered severe post-practice dehydration and kidney failure. They were sent to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham for treatment.
Both players were treated and are now back home.
“It was scary to me because of the work load we did that day was shorts and helmets in 90 minutes,” Kelley said. “When you’ve got two guys with no body fat and they sweat a lot, and they don’t have any sodium or potassium, the water is easy to lose. Once that’s gone, they’re dehydrated. They’re not going to be able to replenish that on the field.
“You feel helpless when you’re in charge of a group of kids and something like that happens on your watch. We definitely take precautions. We’ve got ice buckets out there. We’ve got ice towels out there. We preach hydration. We preach urine tests, but even on the urine tests, if all you drink is water it can be crystal clear, but if you don’t have sodium, potassium and electrolytes, it’s easy to get rid of that water fast.”
Kelley said Black had already left the Warrior field house on Monday and was with some of his teammates when his symptoms began. Woods was still at the field house and was about to leave when his body went into shock.
“We were in here watching (Woods), maintaining him, helping him (when it happened),” Kelley said. “Four guys – the trainer, me, and some other coaches – we realized when Keyshawn started cramping. He’s zero body fat now. He’s cramped before, and you think this is a mild situation, but his abdomen was popping cramps like a piano. We were feeding him these electrolyte dissolvable pills. We were pickle juicing him up. His dad was able to get here and get him over there, then we found out Nate had gone down too.
“Nate’s mom bragged on our guys. He was there (at Sonic) and I had two players who were rubbing him down, trying to get the cramps out, feeding him water, working with him as best as they could until his family was able to get there.”
Even though the two Warriors have their body functions back to normal, Kelley said he’s going to work them back in at practice slowly.
“I’m glad those guys are doing well now,” he said. “From this point on, we’ll use Nate and Keyshawn as examples of you can be hydrated as much as possible, but it doesn’t mean we’re all in the clear now.”
Instances like Monday’s aren’t the first Kelley has seen in his coaching career. When he was coaching high school football in Georgia, he had a player suffer a heat stroke on the field.
“We were able to get him in an ice tub immediately to lower his body temperature down, and we were able to get him life-flighted to Augusta at the time,” Kelley said. “Getting their body temperature down and getting the treatment is key because their body is going into full blown shock.”
In addition to things like water, iced towels, an emergency ice bath, and a trainer on site during and after practice, Kelley said he’s looking into other methods that can be beneficial to the team in case something like Monday’s incidents happen again.
“We’re going to order some special stuff I’ve researched,” he said. “I’ve talked to some guys at the University of Alabama, and this is the stuff they use. Fortunately, we’ve been in their locker room (during a state championship game). In their training room, I remember this stuff that tasted absolutely awful. When you’re fortunate enough to play in those games, the home side has its own training room. They had these little refrigerators with this electrolyte stuff, and I had one of those electrolyte things and it’s called the right stuff. It tastes absolutely awful, but I didn’t catch a cramp the whole game, so it must be good.”
The Warriors open the 2025 football season at Piedmont on Aug. 22.
