105 degrees in Fresno school’s gym? That’s crazy hot, even for strong teen athletes | Opinion

Any middle-aged parent of teenagers knows their physical stamina seems limitless. They run, jump and dance with abandon.

Steer that energy into sports and it results in amazing athletic performances. The San Joaquin Valley is blessed to be full of top-notch high school athletes.

Unfortunately, not all high school facilities are as stout as the young people competing. Case in point: Bullard High’s North Gym.

That was where Bullard High’s girls volleyball team was to take on Redwood High of Visalia in a nonleague match Tuesday night.

But a pump in the gym’s air-handling system got overstressed with the day’s heat and conked out, explained Nikki Henry, Fresno Unified’s chief communications officer. Fresno’s official high Tuesday: 108 degrees.

Bee staff writer Anthony Galviz reported that the temperature in the gym soared to 105 degrees.

America’s sports landscape, sadly, has seen young athletes collapse in hot conditions and even die. Typically, it is football players under full pads in hot sun.

Bullard’s athletics staff followed Fresno Unified’s protocol for dealing with scorching weather, Henry said, and told the Redwood team it was too hot to compete and they’d have to postpone the volleyball match to a later, likely cooler, date.

“Our athletic department monitors the heat and air quality closely when it comes to our athletic activities and they were right to cancel the game,” Henry said in an email.

This gym problem has been years in the making, creating no small amount of frustration for a former district trustee.

Bullard gets on the list for air conditioning

In 2021, Bullard-area trustee Terry Slatic put a district administrator on the spot to admit Bullard was the only one of Fresno Unified’s seven high schools then to have a gym without true air conditioning.

“We have lots of parents out there that are losing their minds when they watch their athletes playing in that gym at Bullard High School when it is 110 degrees inside the gym, and I have been there when it is that (temperature) and I have validated that,” Slatic said.

Bullard’s North Gym uses a system that brings in fresh air to “make up” indoor air that gets pushed out. When the outside air is hot, the gym then heats up, too.

The board went on at that meeting to vote to add air conditioning to Bullard High’s North Gym on the district’s list of maintenance projects.

Henry said both of Bullard’s gyms are scheduled to get air conditioning by the end of 2024. Cost of the work: $4 million.

That is no comfort now to Bullard High athletes, and their opponents, who must start their fall season while it is still summer and Valley hot. But it is the reality of how projects get done in a large district like Fresno Unified.

In 2010, Bullard was the first high school to get updated gyms. But, that that time, air conditioning was not the standard. Now it is, and Bullard will catch up, albeit behind other schools because of how projects get on the list and checked off in order.

Bullard athletes, may you persevere this year and keep your cool, however hot it might get in the gym.

This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 5:30 AM.