The following article comes from the Aspen Institute’s State of Play Baton Rouge report. The report assesses the opportunities and barriers for more children to access sports and physical activity in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

Nothing moves the needle in Baton Rouge like football, whether it’s Friday Night Lights, Saturday morning youth football games or Saturday Night in Death Valley. Football creates community, fuels the economy, and stirs passion.

Now imagine Baton Rouge with fewer football game days. It’s expected. Changes in the climate increasingly expose football players (and all athletes in outdoor sports) to higher temperatures and dangerous levels of humidity that surpass recommended safety thresholds. The average temperature in Baton Rouge in 2023 (72.6 degrees) was warmer than in any other year in the city’s history.

Continuing on the current trajectory of climate change means a shrinking football season for the next generation of players. By the 2050s, East Baton Rouge Parish can expect 34 to 70 fewer days each year suitable for football, according to a study by the Climate Impact Lab. Nationally, one study found that high school football players are 11 times more likely to suffer heat illnesses than all other sports combined.

Not only football is being affected, of course. How, or if, children play sports and recreate outdoors continues to be impacted by climate change, and the challenges are not going away.

For instance, children growing up in New Orleans today are subject to nine more heat waves every summer than those who grew up there in the 1960s. In Baton Rouge, children and families told us they factor in heat and rain when deciding whether a child will play sports at all, which sports to play if they do, and when and where to play them. In our youth survey, almost 3 in 10 children said they don’t go to parks and green spaces as often as they like because it’s too hot.

Lots of work must happen to preserve playing opportunities for children in the future, said University of Toronto professor Madeleine Orr, author of “Warming Up: How Climate Change Is Changing Sports. “The good news is almost all of these playing opportunities can be preserved, but we’ve got to divorce ourselves from the traditional sports systems where we’re married to schedules; we’re obsessed with keeping certain play traditions,” Orr told The Real News Network. “The amount of time, for example, in a half or quarter of a game might have to shift. There might need to be more breaks to accommodate heat, to accommodate rain or whatever it is. And I think we’re just going to have to get more comfortable being flexible.”

Jessica Murfree, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina who studies sports and climate change, worries that youth and high school sports providers lack the resources and preparation to adapt to climate change the way pro and college sports will.

“We’ve lived in a world for so long that puts sports first,” Murfree said. “Now more people are putting people first. Still, to a massive degree, sports are very reactive. How much suffering will it take to really convince organizers and those in charge to make better decisions? Because the climate will continue to change. What does that mean for participating in sports as a basic function of well-being to move our bodies?”

This section explores how climate change is impacting Baton Rouge, how some sports and recreation providers are currently adapting, and what changes can be made so that children can play sports in a safe manner for decades to come.

Changes in Baton Rouge Climate

Increased heat exposure

Baton Rouge had 140 days when temperatures reached over 90 degrees in 2023. The number of days deemed too hot for outdoor activities (when the heat index reaches 103 degrees) is expected to rise dramatically, from 5 to 10 days per year to 50 by century’s end. Heat indices are rising due to climate change, affecting the scheduling and safety of outdoor youth sports.

More fierce storms

The warming of the Gulf of Mexico due to climate change leads to hurricanes that are generally more intense, with heavier rainfall and higher storm surges. These changes present significant challenges for south Louisiana and Baton Rouge. Stronger hurricanes don’t weaken much when they strike the shore and move inland, causing damages that include lengthy power outages and drenching rainfall — two elements that disrupt summer play well into late summer and early fall.

Drought

Baton Rouge used to have predictable rainfalls. Daily afternoon thunderstorms were the norm, providing water for plants and breaking the thick heat. But in recent years, warming has caused wild swings in the weather, including extreme heat coupled with a drought in 2023. Drought destroyed playing fields and even caused fires in the Baton Rouge region. The water table lowered within the underground soil, resulting in sinkholes, including at game fields, that needed temporary sand patches to be playable.

“We’re going to have to be ready for what’s coming our way, and it can be a positive thing,” said Charles Sutcliffe, National Wildlife Federation senior advisor for resilience and former chief resilience officer for the Louisiana governor’s office. “We can make it safer, more comfortable, more fun and provide community benefits in addition to recreation. That’s all available to us if we are just smart about it.”

How Youth Sports and Recreation in Baton Rouge are Adapting

Outdoor rec equipment is not used as much

Many children told us they rarely play outside from late June through August. Baton Rouge residents often look for indoor opportunities for exercise in the hottest months, demonstrating a need for more indoor facilities that promote physical activity. The North Sherwood Family Center is one of BREC’s highest-attended facilities because of its popular indoor, air-conditioned walking track.

“The equipment (outside) is too hot to be able to enjoy,” said Brandon Smith, the former BREC assistant superintendent for recreation programming and facilities. “We’re trying to incorporate more shade sail structures, especially at large community parks. A lot of our smaller parks are trying to incorporate this too, or strategically placing trees to increase shade opportunities. Even some walking paths need better tree coverage. We know it’s miserable.”

Shade sails that can withstand winds from hurricanes or be unhooked during major weather events are very expensive, costing up to $100,000, Smith said.

Some sports get moved to different times of the day and utilize more water breaks

Many teams move games and practices to cooler (relatively speaking) morning or evening hours. Some schools shift P.E. to first period. The Baton Rouge Soccer Club (BRSC) has seen increased interest to play at night in the summer, prompting more scheduling challenges. BRSC avoided playing tournament games from noon to 4 p.m. during the 2023 summer extreme heat wave. Games were moved to the evening, but that shortened the turnaround time for teams who played the following morning. Ice baths were situated at two field locations, and several players and referees got dunked to avoid heat-related illnesses.

BREC generally avoids the 11 a.m.–3 p.m. hours for camps and sports programming, opting for the evening instead. However, that poses problems because rain cancellations increase later in the day. Schools are providing more scheduled water breaks during games — a positive development so players and referees can properly hydrate.

Athletic trainers say that switching practice and game times make sense, but they warn that this adjustment means they are being stretched thin by longer hours. Fewer athletic trainers may be available to treat injuries and care for the health of young athletes.

Children and parents are choosing which sports to play based on heat

BREC officials believe basketball and volleyball are their most popular recreational sports because they occur inside. “The heat has impacted the mindset of how parents are allowing their kids to play certainsports,” Smith said. “I hear from parents who say, ‘I want my daughter playing volleyball because I can sit in the AC to watch rather than sit outside during a soccer match.’”

Added Leroy Hollins II, director of the Louisiana Youth Sports Network, which programs leagues in several sports: “It used to be you could go outside and get acclimated, and now it’s hard to get acclimated to this. In the upcoming years, I really think to not deter kids from participating because it’s so hot, indoor sports are going to continue to be more popular.”

More turf fields are being built

This means ewer rainouts from heavy storms and less maintenance needed than on grass fields. “Based on the rain we get, turf fields are a must to sustain programming through climate change,” Hollins said. “It can rain in the morning, and you can still play later on the turf fields. We used to have to cancel so many games.”

Sports providers have to weigh the benefits of fewer rainouts with the elevated risk of heat injury on artificial turf. Studies find that artificial turf surfaces can get up to 60 degrees hotter than natural grass, radiating temperatures above 160 degrees on summer days. The Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Institute for Climate Change recommends not installing artificial turf due in part to the potential for dangerous heat and chemical exposures. Children are less able to regulate their body temperature than adults.

Schools have adopted new policies

The Korey Stringer Institute ranks Louisiana as the fourth-best state in the U.S. for high school sports safety policies, behind only Florida, New Jersey and Georgia. Louisiana uses the wet bulb globe temperature — a measure of the heat stress in direct sunlight — to guide schools’ practice- and game-related decisions. It takes into account temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover. Levels are color-coded and range from green (safe to do normal activities) to black (no outdoor workouts allowed).

In 2020, Louisiana passed a law requiring schools to establish a comprehensive emergency action plan (EAP) for each sport located on the school’s campus. The Remy Hidalgo Act states that the EAP should follow best practices from the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, and it should be reviewed annually before each sport season with all appropriate personnel designated by the athletic director. Plans should identify who calls 911, who is certified on site to perform CPR, and where the nearest AED defibrillator is located. The law is named after Remy Hidalgo, a 16-year-old football player at Denham Springs High School who died in 2020 after suffering exertional heat stroke at a mid-September practice.

Solutions for Youth Sports and Recreation Providers

Educate more athletes, parents and coaches about heat risk

This needs to be a high priority to keep children healthy and interested in playing outdoor sports. Children can’t always advocate for themselves. Some don’t notice early symptoms of heat stress. Some notice but keep pushing and can be coerced to do so when sports cultures become toxic.

Leaders could promote community awareness campaigns about the risks of heat and the importance of proper hydration and cooling strategies during sports activities. Education needs to go hand in hand with policies and tools.

Coordinate heat action plans across the parish

Encourage local governments, schools, recreation departments and sports leagues to collaborate on developing polices and strategies that prioritize athlete safety given climate change. The creation of a Baton Rouge athletic council could support this effort.

Most states are not doing enough to protect children — a problem exacerbated by the lack of federal mandated heat policies for high school sports, only guidance. Heat policies are sometimes set by state high school athletic associations or by state or local governments. Baton Rouge could become a national leader in how sports leaders and public health officials work together on heat policies.

Louisiana has several state laws addressing heat illness and heat acclimatization in sports, although they only apply to school sports, not community-based leagues, travel sports or other recreational activities. The laws don’t include an enforcement mechanism, so it’s unclear how well schools follow the guidelines.

BREC’s 10-year strategic plan calls for developing a dedicated Heat Team and creating a High Heat Day Action Matrix to guide responses for recreational professionals during heat waves. The plan would provide protocols for mitigating the impacts of high temperatures. By 2027–28, BREC also proposes installing new cooling features and water fountains at five parks, developing a heat illness training program and providing it to staff who run outdoor programs, and continuing to increase tree planting and shade at parks.

But that’s just one plan by BREC. Individual teams and leagues across the parish often make their own decisions on how to handle heat based on their resources, interests and sometimes conflicting information. In that sense, Baton Rouge is no different than many communities. “There are so many inconsistencies across the youth and high school level that makes policies and holistic recommendations very challenging,” said Murfree, the University of North Carolina sport ecologist.

Improve infrastructure for outdoor shade and indoor recreational facilities

Far fewer trees provide shaded recreation in North Baton Rouge than in the rest of the city, according to an analysis by Center for Planning Excellence, a Louisiana nonprofit that champions good planning to buildlivable, resilient communities in the state. “There is a correlation between low-income neighborhoods,smaller tree canopies and less well-maintained parks and facilities with opportunities for kids to play,” said Center for Planning Excellence CEO Camille Manning-Broome.

Manning-Broome recommends that Baton Rouge replace concrete and asphalt in many areas with more natural landscapes, green spaces and water features. Baton Rouge needs more misting stations and equipment that does not absorb and retain heat.

“Europe is at least 15 years ahead of (the U.S.) in planning,” she said. “They’re starting to integrate cooling and misting stations into their urban fabric and public spaces. … The humidity factor is going to make it so dangerous to live (in Baton Rouge) at certain times of the year.”

More air-conditioned indoor recreational facilities are needed. Community leaders could invest in solar-powered cooling stations at sports venues to reduce energy costs and increase resilience against power outages. The Inflation Reduction Act offers financial support covering 40% of the cost of solar installations for nonprofits.

BREC is being creative with plans to build “safe rooms,” buildings to house first responders during natural disasters that will serve the majority of the time as state-of-the-art rec centers for the public. Two future safe rooms will become BREC’s largest rec centers. A safe room is a building constructed to provide near-absolute protection of life by withstanding wind speeds of 250 mph.

The area’s first safe room opened in 2024 on Harding Boulevard, with FEMA providing most of the costs and Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services adding 25% in matching funds. The two safe rooms to be used as BREC rec centers are planned at BREC Memorial Stadium and at Airline Highway Park. They will be funded through FEMA and a federal Community Development Block grant.

Shift the sports calendar to align with milder weather seasons

In addition to restricting outdoor sports during the hottest hours in summer months, some climate experts and medical officials stress that moving traditional sports seasons to cooler months will have to eventually happen. “I’m a big believer that in 20 years, high school football will be a spring sport and not a fall sport,” Korey Stringer Institute CEO Douglas Casa told USA Today.

Adjusting sport seasons is “a great point and definitely an aspirational goal,” said Catherine O’Neal, who in addition to being chief medical officer of Our Lady of the Lake is also chief medical advisor for the Southeastern Conference. “To do that, it would have to come from the top down, starting at least at the collegiate level. People like their schedules when it comes to sports.”

Shifting some sport seasons would be complicated, controversial and a significant cultural shift. It could create unintended consequences for sports participation and college recruiting opportunities. It would not be easy. But as the Earth continues to warm and impact playing conditions in sports, adjustments around the margins will eventually not be enough.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association sponsors four sports in the fall: cross country, football, swimming and volleyball. In the winter, the sports are basketball, indoor track and field, powerlifting, soccer and wrestling. Spring has the most sports with baseball, bowling, golf, gymnastics, outdoor track and field, softball and tennis.

Smith, the former assistant superintendent at BREC, said shifting sports seasons at the rec, club and school levels would create healthier conditions. “I’m speaking as a father who has a 17-year-old soccer player who battles some breathing issues when the humidity is way up,” he said. “It’s certainly a lot better for her when the humidity and temperatures are lower to play soccer. But I think there’s probably more disadvantages to changing (sport seasons). We’re a college town and people get geared up to play their sports at the same time as the colleges do.”

Sutcliffe, the former chief resilience officer for the Louisiana governor’s office, said swapping some seasons will need to be considered in the future. “Football is the hardest one to change,” he said. “I would not start with football. Maybe start with other sports to set an example.”

Diversify sports offerings

Expand the range of sports activities to include more indoor options and water-based sports during peak heat periods. Local leaders can support the development of nontraditional sports as alternatives during extreme weather conditions.

For example, flag football for boys and girls may carry less safety risks in extreme heat with less equipment. Pickleball is a sport for all ages, indoors or outdoors. Powerlifting is a unique sport offered by East Baton Rouge Parish Schools that is done indoors. In our youth survey, some sports or activities that children most want to try occur mostly inside (basketball, powerlifting, boxing, gymnastics, cheer, dance and volleyball) or outside in cool water (swimming). Swimming lessons for youth through BREC decreased by 23% from 2019 to 2023. That was due to the 2019 closing of BREC’s most popular pool (at Howell Community Park), leaving just two for public use (at Anna T. Jordan and City-Brooks community parks). BREC plans to reopen Howell in 2025.

Children want to try different sports. But if they’re not exposed to them or can’t access facilities, it’s harder for the sports to gain traction within a community. Schools can offer more nontraditional sports through clubs, intramurals and P.E. so children have options to enjoy physical activity during extreme weather periods.

In recent years, EBR Schools began offering sports (flag football, basketball, soccer, track and field and volleyball) at some elementary schools to improve kids’ skill levels by high school. Participation at elementary schools tripled in growth since it started. Elementary school coaches receive a $500 stipend per sport. One challenge for greater investment in school sports is that two-thirds of East Baton Rouge Parish public schools lost students since before the pandemic, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate. Enrollment declined by almost 5% over that period and has fallen under 40,000 for the first time in decades.

Bottom line

Adjusting to climate change has not been easy, but many coaches, administrators and parents are evolving in smart ways. Flexibility will be vital in the years and decades to come. The alternative is that fewer children may want to play outdoor sports in Baton Rouge, and with limited indoor spaces accessible to all children, that may mean fewer kids playing sports at all.

Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. Jon can be reached at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.

Climate change is impacting how children play sports