Thousands of soccer players, fans descending to Twin Cities as hot weather arrives

[THEME MUSIC] NINA MOINI: This is Minnesota Now. I'm Nina Moini, in for Cathy Wurzer. For the next week, a suburb north of the Twin Cities will become a hub for young soccer players from all over the world. More than 1,200 teams are coming to Blaine from 70 countries for the Target USA Cup. The tournament has been going on since 1985 and now claims to be the largest youth soccer competition in the Western Hemisphere.

It gets underway tomorrow as a mass of heat moves toward Minnesota. Temperatures are expected to hit the 90s Saturday, which is the first time this summer we'll see temperatures of 90 degrees or above. When you add the humidity, the heat index is forecasted to near 100 degrees on Sunday. As medical director for the USA Cup, Jayme Murphy is in charge of looking out for the health of thousands of players. And he joins me now. Welcome to the program, Jayme.

JAYME MURPHY: Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: Well, Jayme, it is going to be pretty hot. How concerned are you about the heat this weekend?

JAYME MURPHY: Looking at the history of the tournament, it is relatively hot for the summer. But we've seen temperatures well over 100 in the past. And we do have a plan, and I'd be happy to share that.

NINA MOINI: Please do. What's your plan to make sure players aren't getting sick from the heat?

JAYME MURPHY: Yeah. Well, we look at a few things. One is not just direct temperature, but we look at a measurement called Wet Bulb Globe Temperature. So this is a measurement of heat stress in direct sunlight. It takes into account temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover. This is often the gold standard for heat measurement in sporting events because of the direct sunlight. When you look at things such as other heat measurements, they might take in shady areas. So this is the best standard of measurement.

And then we have a plan, based off of whatever this number may be, whether it's 83 all the way up to 90, where we will provide different action plans. Those may include running hydration breaks in the middle of halves, shortening game times. And then if we ever got to it, which I do not think we will this year, there would be play suspended at a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature of, let's say, 90 or higher.

NINA MOINI: OK. And we know there's also going to be thousands of people in the stands, spectators. Are you concerned about them? What tips do you have for people who might just be there watching?

JAYME MURPHY: Yeah. Well, being a sprawling campus up in this northern suburb that we are, most people will not be on stands. They'll actually be scattered throughout the fields.

NINA MOINI: OK.

JAYME MURPHY: We will have hydration stations available. For better or worse, a team is only going to play one or two games a day. So with the size and scale of the tournament, teams and those parents and spectators typically will come and go. So their exposure as a spectator would be, let's say, limited compared to something like, I don't know, the state fair, where you may be at a campus out in the sun for an extended period of time. You may be here just for the game time and then find activities that may be cooler or somewhere else within the metro when not playing.

NINA MOINI: Sure. Something I'm curious about is, whenever it's the first time that we're seeing heat like this, in the 90s, we all feel like maybe our bodies aren't really used to it yet. Is there anything to that? Does that create more risk?

JAYME MURPHY: I wouldn't say more risk, but you may have less resiliency. And something unique about this tournament, when talking about individuals' resiliency to heat, is we have players coming from all different states and countries across the world.

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

JAYME MURPHY: So you may have teams from, let's say, our Scandinavian countries. They typically, that I've seen in the past, have a little bit harder time in the heat.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

JAYME MURPHY: Anecdotally, last year, there was a time where we had some teams from Nordic countries that were getting very hot and coming in the clinic. And they weren't having any elevated temperatures, but you can tell they're exhausted. They're playing lots of games, the travel away from their families. And then I look at the field across the way, and we have a team from the Cayman Islands. And they're wearing sweaters.

NINA MOINI: [LAUGHS]

Yeah, I bet. Well, obviously, you can't look out for every single person there. So what recommendations do you have to people to be looking out for each other for maybe any signs of heat illness or just getting really tired?

JAYME MURPHY: Yeah, things like syncope, like dizziness when you stand up, chills, those are good indicators of when you should be either seeking shelter away from direct sunlight, getting hydration. Those are things that are really important. What we do have on the campus, at least specifically for the athletes, we actually have a full-scale medical clinic staffed by the University of Minnesota sports medicine physicians.

So it's a class. We have residents all the way up to fellows who will be providing care at no cost to all athletes. So what we have unique to other tournaments is we not only have our guidelines, we have a clinical purview into the state of the athletes. So we will know if athletes are coming in with heat illness. And we, as a tournament, are willing to make any changes beyond our guidelines in a reactive manner if we're seeing things within the clinic.

NINA MOINI: OK. And since you have been working with the tournament, how have temperatures compared? What has it usually been like?

JAYME MURPHY: Yeah, we've been, I would say, fairly lucky in years past. The 80s has been what I've seen for the past four years. But you talk to some individuals who've been around here for 20-plus years, this used to typically be, for some reason or the other, one of the hottest weekends in Minnesota. We would see temperatures in the 100s. So comparatively, this is a welcome high.

We are ready. We have all ice baths, internal temperature physicians ready to go if anything happens. It will be hot. It will feel hot for those of us who have been experiencing this mild summer so far. But I don't know if you have family somewhere else in this country. They may think otherwise about how mild this summer has been for them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And you mentioned what it would take heat-wise to maybe postpone some games. But it's also been a stormy summer. And there is a chance for some maybe thunder this weekend. What's the protocol there for postponing games? And does that throw off the schedule?

JAYME MURPHY: Yeah, so that is something we have experienced in years past. We have this tool on the roof of our main campus building. This is the tool not only that measures Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, but it also is called a Thor Guard. If you ever visit our website at nscsports.org/weather, you can see this Thor Guard. And what it is, it measures the magnetism in the atmosphere, which is actually a better indicator of predicting, and also clearing any events that may be related to lightning or weather. So everybody can see this.

Where you may hear in other sports settings half hour after the last lightning you saw, well, that's not necessarily predictive. And that's pretty subjective on who may or may not have seen it. So that's our measurement that we go with. Unfortunately, we will delay events, we will stop until the Thor Guard allows us to return play. Of course, you get eight days in the course of the summer. You will see it from time to time, and we react accordingly.

NINA MOINI: OK. Well, I wish you a really, really great eight days ahead, Jayme. And thank you for being here.

JAYME MURPHY: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: That was Jayme Murphy, Director of Health Data and Analytics at the National Sports Center and USA Cup's Medical Director.