High temperatures have impacted local teams this week as a new high school season begins. Temperatures soared to near triple digits Sunday through Tuesday in the Quad-Cities. Moline set a single-day record high temperature of 98 degrees Tuesday, breaking the record of 97 degrees in 1976.
Heat-index temperatures soared to between 105 and 115 degrees midday on both days. As a result, Moline's volleyball game against Newark on Monday was postponed to a later date. The Moline football team had practices moved to the air-conditioned physical education center.
“The heat has been disruptive in a lot of different ways for a lot of sports,” Moline football coach Mike Morrissey said. “Pretty much any event that was outside, and even the volleyball game, got cancelled yesterday.” Morrissey was thankful that his team was able to get repetitions in over the past couple of days away from the heat.
“We have been fortunate enough to be able to practice — we had all of our levels practicing at the same routine time that they normally do,” Morrissey said. “We were able to get everything accomplished that we needed to do.” Rock Island does not have that same luxury.
Their football practices were moved to early morning this week, starting at 6 a.m. daily due to the uncomfortable and harmful afternoon heat.
"We normally practice after school, but because of the heat wave, there was no way we were going to be able to practice," Rock Island football head coach Fritz Dieudonn Across the Mississippi River, the Pleasant Valley volleyball team was set to start its season Tuesday night at Davenport Central, but the non-climate controlled gym at Central High forced the match to be moved to Sept. 12. “The game got postponed because the heat was too hot in the gyms,” Pleasant Valley volleyball head coach Amber Hall said.
“Even if we have cool air, the floors get slick with condensation, so it is not a safe environment for everybody.” Hall said her team was hoping to play someone other than themselves. “It is disappointing.
We had our scrimmage over a week ago, and we have been practicing for a full two weeks,” Hall said. “We were definitely ready and excited to compete. But the good thing is that we have our MVC-MAC challenge on Thursday.
” Pleasant Valley is one of six Iowa teams participating, alongside locals Bettendorf and North Scott. The other squads are Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Iowa City West and Cedar Rapids Prairie. The Spartans are coming off a semifinal appearance in the state Class 5A class tournament last season.
Morrissey understands the student-athletes who were raring to go for their opening events over the past 48 hours, only to see those games either canceled or postponed. “That is disappointing — anytime you have students who are looking forward to competition and representing their program, you hope they get a chance to do it,” Morrissey said. “There has been a lot of disappointment over the last couple of days because of that.
” Better weather is on the way. Cooler temperature are expected in the coming days. “For most of us, it is a long season,” Morrissey said.
“Everyone will get a lot of opportunities to play, and we are just trying to turn the page to the next day, and anxiously looking forward to playing on Friday.” Sent weekly directly to your inbox! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
