  New PIAA rule taking effect  August 9, 2013 By Philip Cmor ( ,
The Altoona Mirror  The PIAA's new mandatory heat acclimation
program has some area high school football coaches all hot and
bothered.  "I'm not in favor of this," Philipsburg-Osceola coach
Jeff Vroman said during Mountain League media day last week. "I
don't think it's fixed anything."  "I don't know the reasons for
implementing it. I just know we have to do it, and we're trying
to follow it the best we can," Portage coach Gary Gouse added.
"Anytime you try something new, you have to work out the
wrinkles. It's tough on the kids right now. The ones that are
missing and have family vacations are the toughest."  Heat
acclimatization - as it is referred to under the PIAA rule - is
nothing new. Most programs implemented some version of it,
whether it was called conditioning or heat acclimation.
However, because it was done before official practice began, it
only was voluntary. The PIAA, citing that 41 high school players
have died from heat-relate