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A very good reason for midnight prep football practice

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by WolvEagle, Aug 11, 2010.

  1. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Ramadan just started, and so did high school football practices in Michigan. Several schools had their first practices at midnight Monday, but Dearborn Fordson will continue to practice at midnight before the season starts. The school is virtually all Arabic - upwards of 99 percent (and that's not an exaggeration).

    What a brilliant idea. During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset - they don't even drink water. So, by having midnight practices, the players can have food and water in their systems.

    The story link: http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2010/08/11/sports/doc4c616e4ee41a0580840554.txt
     
  2. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    As a quick aside, the team is practicing in its stadium, which is behind the school. There's a artificial turf field.
     
  3. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Pretty shrewd move.
     
  4. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    Lame humor aside, they are about 80-20 run. Under Stergalas, they were about 90-10 run.


    One thing is certain. Make sure you get a roster when you cover a game.
     
  5. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Five losses the last three years according to MaxPreps. Whatever they are doing is working.
     
  6. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I did a radio broadcast when I was in high school and didn't get Fordson's roster until I got to the stadium. My jaw dropped. Thankfully, Coach Jestice was a very patient man with me before the game.
     
  7. D-3 Fan

    D-3 Fan Well-Known Member

    Not to tread away from the subject, but on another situation, I talked to the wife of one of my former high school coaches at a picnic last night. The weather out here in Iowa is so hellish (hot and humid and too much rain to boot), she said their high school had to push practice to 8pm from 4pm. The heat index right now: 104.
     
  8. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    Eight players were treated for heat exhaustion here on the first day of juco practice on the shiny new artificial practice field. I think they didn't anticipate that it would be over 140 degrees on it. Ambulances were called out twice in 25 minutes. They're going to open up the baseball team's locker room, which has AC, so that players who show signs can cool off.

    The problem is that 110 or more guys are probably here right now fighting to be on either the 55-man active roster or to be one of the 20-25 redshirts they'll keep. I don't see too many of those guys volunteering to go to the locker room, so the coaches and trainers are going to have to be eagle eyed.
     
  9. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    It's been really, really hot and humid here in metro Detroit, too. It's been in the 90-degree range every day this week.

    Oh, and speaking of Fordson's football excellence and tradition, if memory serves, the Tractors have had just five coaches since the 1940s. The school opened in the late 1920s.
     
  10. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I spent my lunchtime at my high school's cross country camp. One of the students there, a Muslim student wasn't doing so hot. He forgot to set his alarm this morning and wasn't able to eat. He cannot eat tonight until 8:43 p.m.

    Another friend of mine was up at 4:30 this morning for a coffee, four glasses of water and a huge breakfast.

    This isn't going to get any easier in the next couple of years either. Ramadan gets moved up two weeks eveyr year. So in 2-3 years, we will be smack dab in the middle of the longest summer days.

    This year, it will also impact football season. And at least four of the schools in the Detroit area, Dearborn Fordson, Dearborn Edsel Ford (home of Derek Lowe), Dearbon High, and Deaborn Heights Crestwood (home of Pete Stoyanovich) have significant lebanese populations. The kids are going to kick off their opening day games at 7 pm, more than 14 hours since they have eaten or had water. Then they will eat and drink at halftime. Should be interesting.
     
  11. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Also, it's worth noting that Fordson High School has an elite men's XC team. (Home of the 1991 National Champion Abdul Aldanzani)

    I know many of their runners are doing doubles now. This can't be easy.
     
  12. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    They played in the shittiest athletic conference in the area. And were the biggest school in that conference. With 2,300 students they have more than double the student enrollment than more than about 6 of the schools in their league. And they may have triple the enrollment than two of the schools in their current league.
     
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