Boerne Champion Chargers student trainer Amanda Winstead fills up a water bottle during the first day of football practice conducted in pads. Photo by Mike Reeder

Head trainer Terry Gault and the student trainers enrolled in the sports medicine program at Boerne Samuel V. Champion High School would love to have a football season as uneventful as the first day of practice in pads Aug. 8.

While a combination of high 90s temperatures and players sweltering in a layer of pads kept the trainers busier passing out water than Gunda Din, they had no occasion to use their skills in treating actual injuries.

“You always expect a few more bumps and bruises with contact,” Gault said. “The girls have been busy filling water bottles and the players have been going through a lot of water, but it’s been a relatively easy few days for me, which is always good for everybody.”

With the exception of one player recovering from an injury sustained before practice ever got under way, and starting fullback Josh Wray, who sat out the first day of contact practice with a minor hamstring pull, all hands were on deck when practice began and all walked off on their own power when it ended. The minor battle scars they took with them to their lockers might have looked colorful the next morning, but Gault says being a little black and blue goes with the territory.

“I think a little bit of contact play is just getting used to it,” Gault said. “A lot of it is mentality, too. If you deliver more of a blow than you receive that helps a lot. We just hope we can stay relatively healthy because that always makes you a better team in the end.”

Gault said the heat was more of an overriding concern than injuries. While early practices end by 1 p.m. before the afternoon sun bears down in full force, players were still sweltering after just a few minutes of activity in full football regalia. That’s one big reason pads don’t go on the first day of practice.

“We’re being real cautious about the heat, because when they’re carrying around all that padding it acts as insulation,” Gault said. “But they’d been acclimatized the previous fours days without the pads and it was certainly hot then.”

“The pads do make it hotter,” quarterback Chuck Thornally said. “I know we haven’t run as much as we did with just shorts and shirts on. I think the coaches ran us more then to get us in shape so we wouldn’t have to run as much with pads on.”

“The trainers are getting us lots of cool water,” center Kevin Peet added. “We’ve got the fans going and the coaches give us water breaks. You can also get water whenever you need it.”

With one eye on the sizzling sun and the other on sweat-drenched players, Gault and his student trainers make it their job to see players are constantly soaking up water, long before they think they need it.