HOUSTON – This past spring, schools from across the country came to Bridge City High School, nestled 10 miles away from the Gulf of America in southeast Texas, to recruit linebacker Bryce Breeden. In the blur of 30-some-odd coaches who offered Breeden and visited his school, a particular University of Michigan staffer sticks out in Bridge City head coach Josh Smalley’s mind.

The Wolverines coach attended Bridge City’s spring football practice, pacing around the linebacker drills to scout the prized prospect. About 30 minutes into practice, Coach Smalley noticed the Michigan staffer’s shirt was soaked through with sweat. He looked like he had just hopped out of the pool.

“Coach, is it always like this?” the Michigan staffer asked.

“Like this? This is cool!” Smalley said. “Come back in August.”

When you travel down south of Houston to coastal towns like Bridge City, you realize that old phrase, ‘It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,’ is a warning as much as a cliché. The UIL agrees.

That’s why, starting August 1, 2026, every Texas high school will be required to use a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) thermometer to determine whether or not it’s safe to practice. Like a normal thermometer, the WBGT takes air temperature into account. But it also factors in humidity, direct sunlight, and wind speed into its reading. Schools must check the WBGT within 15 minutes before practice, and every half hour during activity. The requirements based on reading are as follows.

• If reading is less than 82: Normal activity
• If reading is between 82 and 86.9: Mandatory on-site rapid cooling zone
• If reading is between 87 and 90: 2-hour max practice time. Players are restricted to helmet, shoulder pads, and shorts 
• If reading is 90.1 or above: 1-hour max practice, no conditioning activities, no protective gear worn. 
• 92.1: No practicing

For the past three years, the UIL has recommended schools follow WBGT guidelines. But for the first time in 2026, those guidelines will be a requirement. At THSCA Coaching School on Sunday, UIL Director of Athletics Ray Zepeda applauded how coaches, athletic trainers, and administrators have protected kids over the past three years, citing their compliance as a reason the UIL moved to a required rule.

Zepeda did, however, acknowledge that the rule could create some hurdles for coaches, especially early in the season.

“I don’t want to minimize what they look like in August,” Zepeda said. “I coached for 20 years here in Texas. I know the sense of urgency that Texas coaches have in the month of August to get their kids ready to play. But I also want to echo what (THSCA Executive Director) Joe (Martin) said. Safety is the No. 1 priority.”

But coaches like Smalley say that the switch from a recommendation to a requirement has created a sense of paranoia in southeast Texas. In essence, the area of the state that would be most affected by the WBGT altering practice are the least equipped to pivot their practice by moving to an indoor facility.

“I think what a lot of coaches down here are scared of is that we’re the rainiest part of the state,” Smalley said. “We probably have the most humidity in the state. And, honestly, we’re kind of behind the times facility-wise compared to the rest of the state. You start going into the rest of the state of Texas – East Texas, Dallas, Houston – you start seeing a lot of indoor facilities. Well, there ain’t many schools in Southeast Texas and the Golden Triangle that have the ability to go indoors if it does get into wet-bulb territory.”

The simplistic solution would be for all these school districts to build indoor facilities. But that is an exorbitant cost to the school district. And coaches like Port Neches-Groves’s Jeff Joseph say there are other inherent challenges their region presents to having an indoor facility.

“It is harder for us to have indoor facilities because the humidity and the moisture in the air down here creates issues with mold if you’re not running the HVAC all the time in those facilities,” Joseph said. “We have hurricanes down here that also create issues with your school district paying for the insurance on a facility like that.”

Both Smalley and Joseph emphasize they believe the UIL is coming from a good place with this requirement. They agree that both the UIL and the coaches’ No. 1 jobs is to protect kids. But they also believe that there are potential competitive advantages this rule could create that need to be thought about.

At the highest level, Joseph says coaches are frustrated by the decision on whether or not to practice – or what equipment to wear during practice – being taken out of their hands more often than it would be in other parts of the state that are less humid.

“There’s coaches on our staff who’ve been coaching for 30 or 40 years,” Joseph said. “They’ve been through very hot summers and very hot temperatures. Part of our job as coaches is to take care of our kids. That’s something we take pride in, regardless. Having some of that ability to make those choices for our team taken away from us, that could be a little frustrating.” 

But this is far from a matter of personal pride. It could present a logistical nightmare. For instance, Bridge City practices right after school at around 4:00 p.m. Smalley – and other coaches near him – worry that time will always have some version of a WBGT reading that alters practice, whether that be a full cancellation or just forcing a walk-through. Bridge City has a couple options, none of which are entirely realistic. They could have early-morning practices. But because their school day starts at 7:20 a.m., the kids would have to wake up at 4:00 a.m. after a night of studying. If they moved to a late afternoon, or early-evening practice, the kids are driving home in the dark at 9:00 p.m. after a day that began at 7:20 a.m. Smalley feels neither is safe for his team, so he’s keeping his current practice time and planning to adjust based on the WBGT accordingly.

“We only have an allotted time to get practice in between the end of school and when we’ve got to get these kids home,” Smalley said. “It just happens to be probably the worst part of the day to do it.”

Coaches have also expressed confusion as to why the rules are a requirement for practice but not games. Smalley says that his middle schools have four games in one night during the middle of the week, which means the earliest one will have to start right after school, in prime WBGT territory. If his kids cannot practice in this heat, how can they be expected to play in it?

“It’s not for competition, it’s for practice,” Smalley said. “So, we’re going to roll 17 7th-grade B-team kids out there at 4:30 p.m. and tell them, ‘Go get it, buddy.’ But you’re not allowed to practice in it.”

And then, there’s the overall question of how the UIL could possibly enforce this at over 1,500 high schools across the state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ItRwWbIm3k

“Don’t think I ain’t talked to a lot of people that have dealt with this stuff,” Smalley said. “(Some say) ‘We put the wet bulb in the shade so it doesn’t read accurately.’ I’m like, ‘Well, is that really the best thing to do?’”

What’s more, there’s also no written punishment for breaking the WBGT guidelines.

“I want to know what happens if somebody is out there, it’s a bazillion degrees, and somebody turns them in,” Smalley said. “What is the answer for that? I mean, can you get suspended? Can you get put on probation?”

When asked about what the punishment would be for breaking WBGT guidelines, Zepeda said violations would follow the same protocol as debated transfers for athletic purposes. That means a violation would need to be reported to the District’s Executive Committee and then elevated to the State Executive Committee. Zepeda did not lay out specific punishments, instead highlighting the UIL’s trust and belief in the coaches to follow the rules.

“We trust coaches to follow the rules,” Zepeda said. “We have a mechanism for presenting rules violations. It goes through our DEC, and then to our SEC. We’re going to follow that playbook in everything that we do. But I don’t foresee that being an issue because, by and large, Texas coaches care about their kids, and they follow rules.”

Smalley and Joseph agree that the vast majority of Texas high school football coaches will properly follow all of the WBGT guidelines.

“We’re not going to stand in front of a group of kids and teach integrity and character, and then knowingly violate something,” Smalley said.

But what if your opponent on that particular week will? And what if they beat you on Friday night because of it?

Zepeda believes that requiring coaches to follow WBGT guidelines instead of simply recommending them will actually act as a deterrent, and therefore decrease instances of coaches breaking the rules. 

“I think that’s one reason we’re moving to a requirement, because so many coaches were actually following a recommended policy,” Zepeda said. “And so, in some weird way, it was punishing the ones that were doing everything that we’re supposed to, because there were a few that were not.”

Joseph and Smalley say that, while they do have questions and concerns about the rule’s implementation, they know it’s for a cause far more important than winning football games.

“A lot of us who have been coaching a long time have to put our ego aside and understand that the UIL is coming from a good place and doing what’s best for kids,” Smalley said. “No coach in the state of Texas wants to have a kid go down. So, we’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen.”