High school football gets ready for rainy night

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- You can’t control mother nature, and that means sometimes high school football players find themselves playing in rainy conditions.

While some people might think playing in a downpour could lead to injury, athletic trainer David Ruffin said that’s not always the case.

“Anytime you slow the game down; it slows the speed of which people are hitting one another, which of course, that’s cuts back on some of the head injuries. And as far as the lower leg injuries. Most knee and ankle injuries happen when, or I say a lot of them happen, because of the knee. The foot sticks in the ground, and they turn, or they get hit the cleat sticks. When it’s wet and muddy, the cleats really won’t stick,” said Ruffin.

When preparing for a potentially wet game, coaches look at the field.

“We’re very fortunate that we’re playing JA this weekend. They have a turf field. So the playing surface is not going to be as bad. If you’re playing on a rec grass field, there is more potential sometimes for injury, but it really truly is football,” said Chase Nicholson.

While injuries are constant concern rain poses other problems.

“The equipment is what’s important because obviously, you know, headsets can ruin that’s going to cost you money. Balls can ruin. That’s 80 bucks a pop if you let those get too soaked too heavy. They can be ruined. And so there’s a lot of money, unfortunately, involved in this whole thing. So that’s going to be the big part, just trying to make sure you take care of the stuff that can be ruined and replaced,” said Nicholson.

Rain or shine, the game goes on.

“Field of play, it’s gonna be wet. There’s nothing to do with it, the guys are going to be wet there’s nothing they can do about it,” said Nicholson.

“Anytime you step out on the field, you have a risk of getting injured. Most of the coaches are pretty good about keeping an eye on their kids. They know the kids are there with them every day, so if something looks off in, we’re usually there anyway practice and games, so we get to know the kids. So we just, we keep an eye on them,” said Ruffin.