[Jon419]

I can not emphasize this enough... EVERY COACH drills it into their players to hydrate BEFORE the game. This has come about due to the incidents in recent years of one player dying up in Louisville, etc. My son plays 5th-6th grade and I make sure before practice even, that he has had at least 24 oz of water within the hour before, and that he takes water/Gatorade with him, and also drinks during the water breaks. Pikeville had some cramping, but not near as much as Raceland, because they learned from the previous week they were not as well hydrated as they thought, I believe, and addressed that.

The 97 degrees was very early, maybe during warmups, but definitely was not that high by game time. I hope the Rams players are okay, and that there are no health issues resulting from it, and that they stay hydrated to avoid these situations in the future. Very nice team, tough and hard nosed.

On the subject of the DB's, just based on what I saw, the main problem is that they try to rely on their speed to make up for technique weaknesses. Y'all had some good size and VERY good speed in the defensive backfield, but a poor lack of understanding of man coverage and zone coverage. A good smart QB like Maynard, along with smart receivers, will find those seams and expose them in a hurry. That's what happened. Backs were biting on underneath routes all night and leaving Go routes and 10-15 yard slants and flys wide open. A lot of speed to chase down with, but it doesn't help you if you are giving up a wide open 15 yarder that results in another 15 yards before being chased down. Those are morale-killers that eat up huge chunks of ground at a time.

Wish you all well for the remainder of the season. Unless, of course, we meet again in the playoffs! :Thumbs:

It was HOT all night, in Pburg without turf the refs called two Water break time outs