Two-a-day football practices once swept the nation as high school teams geared up to play underneath the Friday night lights.
Now, 12 years later after Hoover (Alabama) High School finished the hit series "Two-A-Days" on MTV, the programs that still carry out the demanding doubled-up practices are relatively few.
Out of 35 football programs surveyed around the greater Chattanooga area, only eight still follow the old tradition the TSSAA mandates can be done only from July 29 to Aug. 17.
Those schools are Notre Dame, East Ridge, Sale Creek, McCallie, Baylor, Coahulla Creek and Dalton.
The two practices in one day have to be separated by at least three hours of rest in a cool environment and cannot happen on consecutive days, while total practice time may not exceed five hours and only one of the two practices can allow full contact.
"We push 'Drink plenty of water, Gatorade and eat right' to our athletes," Sale Creek coach Ron Cox said. "Little Debbies, sodas and cheeseburgers are not the way to do it. We work with their diet and push hydration, hydration. Through two practices our guys really see the importance of what it means to take care of their bodies."
Staying hydrated before, during and after practice is important for athletes.
Since 1960 there have been 148 heatstroke-related deaths in high school football, according to the latest annual report of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.
Planned water breaks every 15 minutes of physical activity is especially important during the dog days of summer in which the temperature inside a football helmet can reach well over 100 degrees.
"You have to be prepared for the heat," Cox said. "I think it's important for kids to be outside and not play video games all the time. A lot of our kids' parents went through two-a-days, and they take pride in doing something that they have heard a lot of stories about."
Many teams look to beat the heat with early-morning practices and full-contact sessions followed by a lunch break and rest before heading back out to work on fundamentals and special teams in the second practice.
According to East Ridge coach Tim James, the chance for his players to bond and build a brotherhood is a big takeaway from spending long hours together right before school starts.
Coahulla Creek coach Caleb Bagley noted further, "We feel like two-a-days builds a little tougher mindset in our kids, especially once they are over and can say we only have one practice today. It's a great time to get a ton of reps in with the younger kids."
For the most part, however, the two practices are not considered necessary for most teams in the area.
With new rules allowing teams to practice with the football at the beginning of June, there is more time to prepare and learn schemes than in the past, when footballs could not be used until after the dead period (June 23-July 6).
At some schools, transportation is tough for athletes for two practices a day.
Many programs instead do one long session of, for instance, morning meetings, a meal and a two-to-three-hour practice.
"With all we do in June, two-a-days is kind of pointless for our program," Soddy-Daisy coach Justin Barnes said. "Then this year the TSSAA added in the ability to do a few 7-on-7 scrimmages during June."
The scheduling of two-a-days now comes down to merely a coach's preference instead of a common practice like it used to be.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.