Good hydrations: Too hot to trot in high heat

Drinking problem - This is 4H week: Hazy, hot and humid and don’t forget hydration. It’s state the obvious for the oblivious week. I don’t really understand the heat index I just know when the dog looks out of the window of an air conditioned room while standing under a ceiling fan and begins to rapidly pant, it's too hot to go outside. Darby Dog is my canary in a coal mine. And you can drink a plastic kiddie pool filled with spring water before going off on a five-mile run and you still have an even-money chance of tripping the homeostatic control center in your hypothalamus and frying your brain. I know; I’ve been there a few times playing football and sharing a ladle of warm spit-back water with fat-faced guys sporting dust-encrusted faces or wobbly-legged runners who think water gulped from a Dixie cup back at the mile mark is going to cool their core temperature like water over uranium at Three Mile Island. Runner's World had the best advice, “When the temperature and humidity total more than 160, don’t run.” Yes, I am Grand Pop rocking the Captain Safety card because I haven’t seen the white light, but I have seen black spots. Be careful, you knuckleheads.

Weight training and nutrition - Teenage athletes respond quickly and impressively to proper weight training and conditioning with equal emphasis on nutrition. Thankfully, girls are finally figuring this out, and many are buying into it not worried about too many muscles. Bursts of speed and explosive power summoned by the brain and boosted by the release of adrenaline translate into performance on the pitch. What am I talking about? Some athletes have it, most do not, but it’s what I call "free stuff.“ You think everyone works hard but they don’t; a focused athlete with a relentless adherence to workout schedules gets on the field and excels. Grand Mom Rose: ”If the people with the most talent worked the hardest the rest of us wouldn’t have a chance.”

Messiah - I was never sure if a messiah was a savior or a Mitsubishi sports car. I was surprised to learn that the Falcons of Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa., have won eight of the last 11 national championships in Division III men’s soccer. I was even more surprised that I was searching out that information at 5 a.m on a Thursday morning, but a veteran columnist wakes up on deadline day seeking sports information that he never sought out before. There are like 60 prominent Division III soccer schools nationwide, and as we sports fans know, Division III schools don’t give athletic scholarships, but they do give out grants that don’t have to be paid back. Messiah’s players come from many different states, but there is only one foreign player, who was home schooled in Guatemala, which sounds like a story I should follow up on. Messiah College has a full array of sports teams, both men’s and women’s, and their philosophy is Pursuing Athletic Excellence and Developing Christian Character. In athletic competition that means they will knock you down and offer a hand to help you back up. The Messiah women were also D3 national champions in 2012, their second title in a row and fifth overall.

Snippets - Thomas Ott, 215 pounds, placed fourth at the recent 2013 Fargo Greco National Championships - alrighty then. Tommy earned All-American status for his performance. It costs an individual $1,200 just to compete in Fargo, and that includes a one-week mandatory camp. The culture of each sport is so different.

A meat-eating man who becomes a vegetarian will find it's like hitting the disk brakes on a 1975 Ford LTD while driving 100 miles an hour across a frozen lake bed. You will not lose weight until your body figures out the change. In the interim you will simply be a fat vegetarian with fewer aggressive tendencies. I am now set up for a major dis.

I’ve made a 20-person ballot for the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Bucks County Chapter down from 220 nominations - but only 10 get inducted and even my own Pennsylvania relatives don’t like me except my brother‘s extended family. When you’re a young athlete you remember who told you what you couldn’t do. When you’re an older athlete you remember who told you what you didn’t do. “Fredman, someone told me you could dunk when you were in high school; is that right?” “Yes, it is.” “Get the heck out of here, man, no way!” “You’re right, I’m making it up, now do me a favor.” “What?” “Go on now, git!”