Players try to beat the heat with multifaceted strategy

By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — One inevitable challenge for Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic participants each year is contending with the heat of summer, and the weeklong training camp under way at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft in anticipation of the 27th annual benefit game in Biddeford is no exception.

After enjoying mild temperatures on Sunday and a bright, comfortable Monday, the temperature and humidity began to inch up Tuesday as the East and West squads made up of the top players from the state’s high school Class of 2016 continued with their double- or triple-session daily practice schedules.

“Today’s pretty hot,” said recently graduated Bangor High School running back Dane Johnson. “It’s not something that’s fun to look forward to, but we’re just going to continue to work hard.

“It’s adversity, but we’ve just got to push through it to be ready for Saturday.”

Many of the players and coaches find the conditions similar to those they experienced at the outset of preseason practices in mid-August throughout their high school careers.

“We’ve been through it for four years in double sessions,” said former Brewer High School linebacker Dylan Severance, “so we just keep ourselves hydrated and try to stay in the shade as much as we can.”

Coping with the heat involves a multifaceted strategy that begins in the air-conditioned dormitories on the Foxcroft campus that house the players and coaches.

“We’re fortunate enough to have AC in our dorms, so after those hot practices we’ll shower up and just hang out there and cool off a bit,” said Johnson. “We just have to eat well and stay hydrated to get ready for the heat.”

That preparation includes drinks from fountain stations in the cafeteria during meals throughout the day, as well as water and other drinks made available in the dorms.

“By the end of the week we’ll have gone through 50 cases of water [24-packs] and 50 cases of Gatorade [18-packs],” said Danny White, Foxcroft Academy’s chief financial officer and head football coach and a veteran member of the Lobster Bowl’s East team coaching staff.

“It’s a lot, and by [mid-] Monday we had already gone through 100 pounds of ice.”

Plenty of water also is available at practice, as well as shade tents that enable the players and coaches to escape the mid-July sun.

“We’re going to be careful with our kids,” said East head coach Bob Sinclair of Orono High School. “We’ve got a shade tent to get them in the shade when we can. We give them water breaks, and we tell the kids, ‘If you’re not in a drill and you feel like you need water, go get it.’

“We’re not going to take any chances.”

The players and coaches are supported by a training staff that includes Foxcroft Academy trainer Jackie Tourtelotte, Chris Sementelli and his sports medicine staff from MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, and J.P. Stowe, who provides athletic training services for Orono High School.

“Safety is the first priority, no question,” said Sinclair. “First of all, we don’t want to put the kids in a tough situation where many of them haven’t had a lot of physical activity until now, and we don’t want them to be in a situation where they can’t play.”

Sinclair and West head coach Stacen Doucette of Oak Hill High School in Wales also can adjust the amount of protective pads their players wear during practices to account for weather conditions.

“We’ll take stuff off,” said Sinclair. “[Tuesday] afternoon we’re going with just uppers. [Tuesday] morning we went with full pads because we felt we had to get that out of the way and it was a little bit cooler then, but we didn’t want to put them in full pads later in the day.

“We’d rather take it a little easy on them and go uppers or just helmets. At some point in time [Wednesday] we’re going to go just with helmets and review all of our special teams because we need to do that.

“We don’t need to be out there banging heads every day,” he added. “We just don’t need to do that.”