Marble Falls ISD bond addresses weather impact

EDITOR’S NOTE: A $172.2 million bond package will be presented to Marble Falls Independent School District voters that has four propositions. One is the construction of an indoor practice facility. Early voting begins April 22-29.

Texans have a saying when it comes to weather.

“If you don’t like it, wait a minute.”

But in the outdoor sports world, weather decides if the game will be played, moved or cancelled. Most governing bodies of extracurricular events have a policy for games that states how quickly a district contest must be made up.

And those associations also have guidelines for when practices can be conducted in outdoor venues that don’t have a roof.

Brandon Belk, a 1997 Marble Falls High School graduate, got his start in sports medicine as a high school freshman. He is now an athletic trainer at the school district, a position he has held for 21 years.

While Belk was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Southwest Texas State University, the death of Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer rocked the league, sports medicine and outdoor sports.

Stringer, who was 27, finished practice Aug. 1, 2001 and died a day later from “exertional heatstroke, an avoidable and easily treated condition that sports medicine largely ignored at the time,” according to reports.

“Almost immediately, football programs at all levels began re-evaluating outdated notions of heat conditioning, hydration and the psychology of pushing through physical distress,” according to a report on ESPN.com.

Since her husband’s death, Kelci Stringer, his agent Jimmy Gould, the NFL, the University of Connecticut and Gatorade formed a partnership to start the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) in 2010. Because of the group’s advocacy and research, reported deaths from exertional heatstroke have dropped by 51 percent in its first decade of existence, according to data from the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research.

All of that helped shape the Marble Falls Independent School District’s heat and cold policy and ranges that tell coaches where they can practice and for how long, Belk said.

“i would say it’s the gold standard that you want to do what’s best for the kids,” he said.

The school district is a member of Perry Weather that “tracks on-site conditions and alerts your team to extreme heat, lightning and other weather hazards.”

They also look very closely at the WetBulb Globe Temperature, which “is a measure of the heat stress in direct sunlight, which takes into account: temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover (solar radiation).” It is different from heat index that “takes into consideration temperature and humidity and is calculated for shady areas,” according to the National Weather Service.

Marble Falls ISD had been using the WetBulb Globe Temperature before the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of extracurricular activities for public schools in the state, began recommending using it to its members, Belk said.

Before Stringer’s death, such policies in the sports world simply didn’t exist.

So what happens when there’s extreme cold or extreme heat for the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs on a practice day?

Without an indoor facility, practices are moved to indoor gymnasiums or cancelled.

In August, the freshman football team, which practices in the afternoon, may move into the Mustang or old varsity competition gym. The varsity and junior varsity practice during the morning. The reason why they go into the Mustang gym is because of the open space.

But if the football team is in there, that means volleyball must have all players in grades 9-12 in the Max Copeland Gym for practice.

But the high school tennis team is also practicing to prepare for the team tennis season.

“Tennis has canceled some practices in the fall because it was too hot,” Belk said. “They either went into a gym or in the weight room because they couldn’t go outside. Honestly in the afternoon it’s kind of like a chess match, because we still have cheerleading.”

Wednesdays in August and September can be especially challenging because the campus may have 175 students, including the Mustang band, practicing outdoors.

The band has its own outdoor practice area complete with football field yard lines behind the band hall.  

Belk attends practices for all sports and home and road contests. He notes that moving practices indoors presents challenges.

“When you (move indoors), it’s a hot day,” he said. “You’re going to start sweating all over the court. And so we end up (with some who) are slipping when they’re trying to do a play. They downsize for the play, but we have kids that are slipping because of the sweat. They’re trying to have proper tackling techniques.”

He noted that the offense from 2019-2023, which was more run-based, had more tight formations. Head coach Keri Timmerman’s scheme, which is based on the spread, has more passing plays that require the ability to have a certain amount of space between the receivers, the linemen and the tight end along the line of scrimmage.

“The gym isn’t nearly big enough to do everything,” Belk said. “You still have walls.”

He also recalled that during soccer season, which is played from January to March, there was a week where the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs couldn’t practice because it was too cold.

But constructing and indoor facility means teams won’t have to use a gymnasium to practice or cancel practices all together.

The Marble Falls Independent Community Advisory Committee submitted a list of recommendations to the Board of Trustees in December 2024. Among the items listed was an indoor facility that includes a 70-yard field with lines for football, soccer, cheerleaders, the Starlettes dance team, and the band along with drop-down netting to create pitching and batting cages, pitcher’s mound and bases for baseball and softball, a practice gymnasium and a weight room.

In addition, officials said elementary schools can have their field days in it.

The indoor facility is priced at just over $26 million.

If approved, the school district will pay for the bonds using its Interest and Sinking (I&S) tax rate that’s currently at 21.53 cents.

If the bond propositions pass or fail, the tax rate remains the same, said Dr. Jeff Gasaway, Marble Falls ISD superintendent.