Train in the heat. Do not pretend it is October.

A high-pressure ridge has been sitting on North America since late June. Extreme heat is not a headline you scroll past on the way to practice. It is the condition of the pitch.

Good sessions in this weather are shorter than your pride wants. Water is not a reward at the end. If a player looks wrong — confused, stopped sweating, wobbly — you stop. Heat stroke is not “toughness.” It is an emergency, the same as a collapse at midfield.

Technically, heat is a constraint you can use. First touch under fatigue. Decision-making when the legs are heavy. That only works if the coach is willing to cut volume before the ambulance is the next arrival.

Uniontown Girls Varsity, a D License, and years of EMS work sit in the same person here. The standard is the game. The standard is also that everyone goes home.

If you want a session in Vanderbilt or on the road, say so. We will pick a time of day that respects August, not one that ignores it.