Schools Continue to Manage the Heat
July 16, 2015
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
It certainly was not the MHSAA’s intent to spur the most historically frigid back-to-back winters the state has seen. Nor did the Association wish for one of the mildest summers in recent memory during 2014.
Seemingly, it’s just Mother Nature’s way of reading into MHSAA efforts for managing heat and humidity and acclimatizing student-athletes for warm-weather activities.
Since guidelines were put in place (recommended for regular-season sessions and required for postseason tournaments) before the 2013-14 school year, there have been relatively few days during which psychrometers have had to be implemented.
“The key is, we’ve got plans in place for when the climate returns to normal trends for return-to-school practices and contests in August and September, as well as early June events,” said MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts. “It is a bit ironic that there have been relatively few days since the guidelines were established that they’ve actually come into play.”
In a nutshell, the guidelines provide instruction for four ranges of heat index: below 95 degrees; 95-99 degrees; 99-104 degrees, and heat indexes above 104 degrees, with increasing precautions in place as heat indexes rise. An index above 104 calls for all activity to cease.
Certified athletic trainers Gretchen Mohney and James Lioy agree that recent requirements in heat and hydration guidelines are a step in the right direction and encourage that – when possible – an athletic trainer oversee the implementation. Simply taking a reading from just outside the AD’s office or at home does not simulate on-site conditions.
“This doesn’t take into account the radiant heat at the site, which can drastically affect the conditions that athlete plays in. It is essential that all parties involved in making decisions to play collaborate with one another,” Mohney said.
Heat-related deaths in athletics rank only behind cardiac disorders and head and neck injuries, but such fatalities might lead the way in frustration for families and communities of the victims. The reason? Heat-related illness is totally preventable.
Another source of mild frustration is the lack of recording within the state for those practice and game situations which warrant heat protocols.
When the Representative Council was formulating the Heat and Humidity Policy, it was also mindful of ways in which the MHSAA could assist schools in putting the plan into practice. Coaches, athletic directors and trainers needed a method to record information for athletic directors to view and for the MHSAA to track. The MHSAA developed interactive web pages on MHSAA.com which allow registered personnel to record weather conditions as practices and contests are taking place, using psychrometers.
Additionally, discounted Heat and Humidity Monitors and Precision Heat Index Instruments are offered to schools through a partnership between the MHSAA and School Health.
Yet, since the availability of such tools came to fruition two years back, fewer than 1,000 entries have been recorded, and many are multiple entries from the same schools.
Of the 772 entries, only 15 took place when the heat index was in excess of 104, while just 21 indicated an index of greater than 100. Cooler temperatures could be playing a factor in the overall number of participation, particularly in the northern areas of the state.
Nearly all of the responses came during fall practices, with a few isolated cases coming during the spring.
As Mohney pointed out, all resources must be properly used in concert with one another to achieve desired results.
Reminders of the tools available to schools are disseminated throughout the state each summer.
Forest Area's Stremlow Never Far from Serving School Sports Community
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2022
He hasn’t met a sport he can’t coach. And, he probably hasn’t turned down a team he’s met – yet.
Many of the coaching jobs he’s taken were actually offered to him by him.
Whenever he’s started a new sport, he’s sought mentors in the form of successful veteran coaches. But make no mistake, if they made a movie in Northern Michigan called “The Mentor” – this Hall of Fame coach would be the star of the show.
He’s technically retired today. The teams he coaches don’t get TV cameras and other media present. He’s a middle school track and volleyball coach for Fife Lake Forest Area Community Schools.
He’s perhaps most well-known as the past volleyball coach at Forest Area. Don’t be surprised if you hear of graduated athletes – and current student-athletes – from Glen Lake, Manton, Kingsley and even McBain Northern Michigan Christian happily call him “Coach.”
Name the coach? Ron Stremlow. He’s a retired physical education teacher, athletic director and coach. He came out of retirement to return as the part-time athletic director for Forest Area, a district he served 32 years as a teacher.
He’s also coaching a couple of middle school sports, just like he did when he was working full-time. Athletic directors often need to put themselves in tough-to-fill coaching slots.
“Ron Stremlow has been a tremendous ambassador of high school sports in Northern Michigan,” said Dave Jackson, athletic director of Frankfort-Alberta Schools. “The number of coaches, parents and athletes Ron has encouraged during his years of service are too many to count.
“He is an athletic administrator that has always been about service and what (he) can do to help.”
Help is exactly what he did once upon a time for then-new volleyball coach at McBain Northern Michigan Christian, Diane Eisenga. The call for help came from Eisenga’s players.
Today, Eisenga is an athletic assistant for the Comets and mother of five boys, her youngest still attending NMC. Like Stremlow, she has built a very successful program. Back then, she was just getting started, pregnant and a mother of two children, and unable to coach her team during a Ferris State University tournament that Stremlow had planned to scout with longtime friend and Kingsley 1,000-win volleyball coach Dave Hall.
Stremlow actually was planning to watch NMC at the tournament, anticipating the Comets would be a potential roadblock to a District title that upcoming season. (He was right: Forest Area would end up losing to NMC in a District Final as the Comets reached the Class D Quarterfinals.)
What Stremlow did not anticipate was being asked by the Comets players to step in and coach them at the Ferris tourney. Stremlow was told Eisenga was not feeling well enough to guide the team at that moment.
Stremlow did not hesitate to help. He had previously leant his wisdom to the former Dordt University (Iowa) athlete with tryouts, cutting decisions and NMC’s summer camp.
“I had played in high school and college, but I was green,” Eisenga acknowledged. “He was a good mentor.”
She recalls her players asking for Stremlow’s help.
“I got real light-headed and wasn’t feeling well,” she said. “Because the girls had known him, he took over for me that day.”
It wasn’t a surprise for Eisenga to witness Stremlow’s contribution to her team’s success that year.
“I always saw him as more of a mentor and more of a friend (than an opposing coach),” Eisenga said. “He was happy with anyone’s success.
“He was always happy for any team that played well,” she continued. “Of course, he always wanted his own to win. … He was always respectful, and you never saw him cross the line.”
Stremlow, who jokes about maybe not having the most wins among hall of fame volleyball coaches while claiming the most losses amongst the elite group (he still ranks 17th in MHSAA history with 944 volleyball wins despite retiring from the Forest Area varsity after the 2018 season), spends his days taking care of Forest Area boys and girls basketball, completive cheer and the Warriors co-ed wresting teams. Many a night he does whatever it takes to run an event, including running the scoreboard for basketball.
In the fall, Forest Area offers 8-player football, cross country and volleyball. He’s in the midst of finalizing spring softball, track and baseball.
Basketball is perhaps his favorite sport, but he loves the change of seasons.
“Once that season’s up, I am ready to rock and roll and get into another,” Stremlow noted.
Giving back is what keeps the 62-year-old Stremlow going. He sees at least three years of involvement ahead.
“A lot of kids do not get good role models or good coaches. And I thought if I can help kids out, I am going to,” Stremlow said.
Today Stremlow wears many school colors, especially the Warriors’ forest green. You also often can find him in Kingsley orange, or perhaps it is actually the Manton orange.
You will definitely find him in his favorite, maize and blue. His forest green should never be confused with the Michigan State green. The Wolverines became the favorite of the Central Michigan grad when he got into the Big House as a high school student with a $2 ticket to watch Michigan take on Navy.
“I have green, but it is not the Michigan State green,” Stremlow said he often jokes with fans of the Spartans and Warriors.
Stremlow uses all his team colors as he follows another passion, photography. He got a camera for college graduation, and student-athletes all over Northern Michigan have benefited.
“There are thousands of former players from Forest Area and Kingsley that can point to pictures in their homes that Ron has taken of them playing sports,” Jackson said. “These pictures are not just cute shots, but pictures that were used to teach form and techniques.”
Stremlow takes satisfaction from capturing sports on film, rather digitally, as he does today.
“I take a lot of pictures – I‘ve always liked it,” he said. “That’s the best gift you can give any kid and parents – just getting pictures.
“It really helps, plus I like doing it.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Fife Lake Forest Area athletic director Ron Stremlow talks with official Chuck Bott (right) before a basketball game against Indian River Inland Lakes this season. (Middle) Stremlow shows support for his favorite college team while prepping before a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Top photo by Tom Spencer; middle photo by Andrew Fish/Gaylord Herald-Times.)