It's not the heat; it's the hysteria

SPORTING GOODS

Yesterday the Hartford Courant and other state papers reported that

Police have charged two assistant football coaches at Middletown High School with second-degree reckless endangerment after a player collapsed during a strength and conditioning session Tuesday evening.

Police said they were called to the high school at 7:27 p.m. and found that a group of players had been doing weight training and running in the extreme heat. The student collapsed while sprinting up a hill with other players. He was not identified.

Police said the temperature at the time was 93 and no water had been provided to the players during the training.

Well, as it turns out, this initial report might have been a bit of an exaggeration.

Police and school administrators have provided contrasting accounts of the events surrounding the arrest Tuesday of two assistant football coaches and the illness of a high school athlete under their supervision ...

Mike Pitruzzello, the school district's athletic director, said that all 12 of the athletes at Tuesday's 6 p.m. conditioning session had their own water bottles. The students, Pitruzzello said, were wearing shorts and T-shirts.

The players spent about an hour lifting weights in an air-conditioned room at the high school, then went outside to do six 30-yard wind sprints, school Superintendent Michael Frechette said.

"They were made aware of hydration and told to drink a lot of water," Pitruzzello said.

The kid didn't collapse; water was available. The whole thing looks pretty ridiculous.

Be that as it may, the story will continue to have legs because of the infantile feud the town's mayor and superintendent of schools continue to have.