August is the most difficult month of the year to write a high school sports column. Little League Baseball has ended and high school fall sports open in the middle of the month. There is some 7 on 7 football competition being held with most Frederick County high schools participating, but it’s just was too hot out this summer.
As a matter of fact, the heat is the real story for the 2026 summer vacation season. Newer cars have a dashboard digital outside temperature gauge, something my Dad’s 1967 Rambler station wagon was missing. Last week, my dashboard gauge read 107!
Dad was an HVAC guy, so he carried an old fashioned bulb gauge with him in his pocket. He would routinely announce the temperature to the family during family trips. He bought an automobile air conditioner from Sears and installed it in the family wagon. Every guy in the neighborhood showed up to help him put it in. They all laughed and joked under the shade of the oak trees while the delicate operation was under way to install A/C into the underpowered Rambler four cylinder. When the time came to take a test ride, nine full grown men piled into the Rambler wagon and went on a “road test”. It was the talk of the neighborhood for weeks. The Betteridges had an air conditioned car!Unfortunately, our house did not. No one had air conditioning in the 60s. But my Dad did! He would load the family into the wagon for the trip to grandma’s in Long Island every summer. Now, with the air conditioning, this summer trip would be the event of our childhood. An 8 hour trip to the end of Long Island in style. Coloring books, games and reading in the cool comfort of a luxury road trip. There was only one problem. Dad would fire up that Ramber A/C on full blast, roll up all the windows and light up one of his favorite big green stogies as we barreled down the New Jersey turnpike. Like the cigar, the kids in the back were green too. We begged him. We pleaded. But, to no avail. He was on vacation and he was in charge. Today, childhood protective services would probably be involved.
I went hiking with a friend in the Wilderness area of Virginia back in the 90s in the heat of summer and the trail markers were wrong. The trail was marked as a 7 mile hike in and out, but when we arrived at the turnaround marker, we realized it was 7 miles in and 7 miles out. It was late and we had to make it out before sunset. I handed the water bottle to my friend and said “keep up”, I’ll get us out. The local streams were marked “do not drink”. There was an outbreak of giardia in the area, a nasty intestinal parasite. We made it out before dark. Later that evening, I began to shiver and became very cold. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get warm. I went to the emergency room and the doctor said I had malignant hyperthermia, a serious and deadly form of heat stroke. I hadn’t hydrated properly that day in the heat and now my body was shutting down at a cellular level. He shoved two IV’s into me and we waited. Obviously, I recovered, but I share this with you because I never knew that you could reach a point of no return with heat stroke without even knowing you were in peril. Lesson learned! Don’t go out in the heat without sufficient hydration and don’t take it for granted that you’ll be all right. The doctor said, “next time drink the water”. An antiobiotic beats heat stroke any day.
The World cup has been a huge sensation here in America and the first thing visiting teams remark about America is our wonderful air conditioning. We take it for granted. They do not. They practiced in giant indoor temperature controlled arenas for the first time , while visiting. During press conferences, over and over, you hear players say: “We love America!” They talked about Walmarts and Costcos and huge McMansions everywhere. In their world, air conditioning and box stores are scarce.
I had a chance to chat with a friend of mine who is a high school soccer coach. I asked him his impression of the level of play in the Cup and why America couldn’t compete. His answer was simple. We don’t yet have the infrastructure here to support youth soccer. Youth football and baseball are huge, but soccer hasn’t yet filtered down to the grassroots level. American soccer skills are way behind international levels. That’s because of the “pay to play” barrier which forces out young talented players from lower income families. Kids play soccer here in our area at an elite level of travel teams which function like exclusive country clubs for sports parents. Unlike football and baseball, you will rarely see a “pickup” game in the park like my soccer coach friend Sam Sasu says is everywhere in Europe. Most high school soccer players have attended camps and played on travel teams which actually stifle player development, according to Sam.
I think the World Cup introduced soccer to many Americans in 2026. If anything, Americans love a good party and that’s what the Cup brought, pageantry and fun.
But for now, with August upon us, and the World Cup finished, we say goodbye to futbol and hello FOOTBALL!