When most people think of high school football in Pennsylvania, they picture brisk fall evenings or cold late-October Friday nights.

But the truth is, with the season now starting in August, there are just as many warm - or even hot - playing dates as there are cold ones.

That has never been more evident than during the first few weeks of the 2023 season.

For this week’s Overtime column, we spoke to three veteran area trainers about the early-season heat wave, how it ranks among those they have dealt with previously, and how their football programs are adjusting to it.

In addition, Rod Heckman shares some interesting notes about Northwestern’s receivers, Pleasant Valley’s defense, and a number of other subjects.

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Dave Smith has been the trainer at Palmerton High School for so long that he is now routinely know around the school and the area as “Trainer Dave.”

But even with his long history of working Bomber football games and football practices, Smith said this season has been unique.

“This is my 33rd year at Palmerton, and this is the longest stretch of hot weather I can remember at the start of a football season,” said Smith. “The combination of heat and humidity has been brutal - and now with the added factor of our artificial turf playing surface increasing that heat even more - the start to this season has been the hottest I can recall.

“Because of that, we’ve made modifications in our practices and also have added hydration breaks during two of our three games so far.”

Marc Gallagher is starting his 25th year as Marian’s trainer and agrees that this season has been unusually hot.

“We’ve adjusted how we’ve practiced, and have stressed hydration with our players even more than we normally do,” said Gallagher. “As a coaching staff and a training staff, you really have to keep on top of things when the weather is as relentless as it’s been since the start of the season. It’s vital that everyone is on the same page, and that every precaution is taken during both practices and games. (Head coach) Stan (Dakosty) has always been great about that. Whatever our suggestions are, he follows them to a tee.”

Although Gallagher agrees with Smith that this is the hottest stretch he can recall in his time at Marian, he said he has been part of some game days that were even hotter.

“When I first started here in the late 1990s, we still didn’t have lights and were playing Saturday afternoon games,” Gallagher said. “I can remember playing some early-season games at 1 p.m. - during the hottest part of the day - where the conditions were even worse than they have been for games this year. That said, we’ve had some really hot nights for football to start the season.”

Kristen Gieniec is in her 16th season as Lehighton’s trainer.

“The fall sports season is always a hectic time of the year because of all the different sports taking place,” said Gieniec. “But this year, because of the heat and humidity we’ve had to deal with, it’s been even busier than normal.

“Not only have the conditions been hot for all three of our football games, but the weather for our afternoon practices - especially last week - have probably been the worst I can remember since I’ve been here.”

According to the National Weather Service readings in Allentown, the game-time temperatures for the first three Friday nights of the football season have been 81 degrees on Aug. 25; 73 degrees on Sept. 1; and 85 degrees (prior to the storms) on Sept. 8.

The daytime practice temps have been even worse as the thermometer hit the 90-degree mark every day from Monday, Sept 4 through Thursday Sept. 7. There have also been plenty of 80-plus degree temperature days since practices started in early August.

“We are constantly stressing to our kids how important it is to drink plenty of water. Not just while they are practicing but before and after practice as well, “ said Smith. “In addition to that, three times last week we practiced in helmets only and not full equipment because of the heat. I would estimate that we’ve probably only had to do that a dozen or so times in my 33 years here, and we did it three times last week alone, so that just shows how unusual this weather has been.

“In our opening game against Lehighton, we had kids on both teams struggle with cramping. There were probably as many cases of cramps in that game than any I can remember. So our last two games, we’ve put in water breaks for the players halfway through each quarter, and we extended the halftime break an extra five minutes to give kids a little more recovery time.”

Gallagher said Marian also has had several modified practices where players wore helmets only and breaks were added every 10-15 minutes to hydrate.

“The PIAA gave all schools Kestrel Weather Meters several years ago,” said Gallagher. “It a device that sits on a tripod about three feet off the field, and it measures things like heat and humidity, and then gives you the wetbulb globe temperature. That’s the gold standard for trainers. Based on that number, the NATA (National Athletic Trainers Association) has guidelines on how teams should conduct their practices. It gives recommendations for how long you should practice, how often breaks should be, and how much equipment should be worn.

“We will then meet with our coaches and give them the information on how practice should be conducted that day.”

Geiniec said it’s all hands on deck when it comes to keeping the Lehighton players properly hydrated for hot practices and games.

“We throw water bottles in everyone’s hands who is on the sideline - from junior high players to varsity players who are injured to our managers - and we tell them any time a player comes off the field to go up to them and make sure they take some water,” said Gieniec. “At smaller schools like Lehighton, we have a number of kids who rarely come off the field so for those players in particular, we are always trying to make sure that even if they are on the sideline for less than a minute, they are drinking water or Gatorade, or using one of the ice towels we have.”

Gieniec said that Lehighton also has three tubs available for ice baths that can be used for recovery or in case of emergency.

“Fortunately, we haven’t had to use them for anyone dealing with heat exhaustion or a problem like that,” said Gieniec. “But they are available if needed. We also probably have about a dozen players who use them after practice or games for recovery purposes. It’s just another way we try to take care of the student athletes and help them deal with the extreme heat we are experiencing.”

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CATCH A TIGER ... Northwestern’s Mason Bollinger had a big receiving game in the Tigers’ matchup with Blue Mountain last Friday.

The sophomore caught five passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns in his team’s 28-21 victory.

Over the past 35 years, Bollinger is just the fourth Northwestern player to have at least 140 receiving yards in a game. The others include Trevor Cunningham, who did it five times during the 2016 season, Justin Holmes, who did it three times in 2019, and Caleb Clymer in 2017.

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PV PICKS ... A strong defensive effort by Pleasant Valley helped the Bears earn a 14-12 victory over East Stroudsburg South on Monday.

In the contest - which started on Thursday before being suspended and finished Monday - PV intercepted four passes.

Over the past 35 years - or a total of 370 games - this was just the eighth time the Bears had at least four picks against an opponent. Two of the those times (Oct. 22, 2004 and Sept. 24, 1988) they had five in one game.

Also of note, the win over the Cavaliers was the third time over the last 45 years that Pleasant Valley won a game on a Monday. The others were a 14-6 victory over Hazleton on Sept. 20, 2004 and a 7-0 triumph over Notre Dame on Sept. 25, 1989.

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DOUBLE HAT TRICK ... Jim Thorpe’s Cole Lazorick and Palmerton’s Matt Machalik both pulled off a rare feat last Friday.

The two quarterbacks threw for three touchdowns and also ran for three scores in the same game.

Since 1996, an area player has thrown three or more touchdowns 193 times. In only five of those occasions has that player also scored at least three rushing touchdowns.

Machalik actually accomplished the feat last season, ironically enough, against Thorpe. The only other two times it’s happened (since 1996) was Oct. 9, 2020 when Northwestern’s Justin Holmes did it versus Palmerton, and on Oct. 20, 2017 when Tekoah Guedes of Palmerton pulled it off against Salisbury.

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OUTGAINED BUT WINNERS ... Pen Argyl totaled 303 yards to Northern Lehigh’s 189 last Friday, but the Bulldogs still pulled out a 16-12 victory.

Joe Tout’s club had lost 32 straight games when being outgained by 114 yards or more. The last time they won in that situation was Oct. 19, 2012 when Bangor held a 384-253 advantage in yards but Northern Lehigh gained a 34-27 victory.

Over the last 30 years, that is the only time the Bulldogs have won a game when outgained by that many yards. Their records in those games is 1-69.