Dear Iron Horse Players and Parents,

We are expecting our first big weather event today and we have 11 teams practicing tonight so I wanted to send out some reminders about weather protocols.  

We have players that come from as far east as Rockwall, as far north as McKinney, Prosper and Lantana, as far west as Fort Worth and as far south as Ennis.  We hate for you to even start to drive in the event of weather but at some point it may happen.  

For the 5:30 PM starts we will make a call by 4:00 PM and for the 7:00 PM starts we will make a call by 5:30 PM.  We are not perfect but will make the best call we can taking into account all of our various weather apps, weather reports, current radar and our known history with the Jesuit lightning detector. 

Grass fields:  Jesuit is really lenient with us using the grass fields after rain, however, a heavy longstanding downpour right before practice with no time to drain would require us to cancel or move to either the baseball or stadium field if available.  

LIGHTNING DETECTOR AND EXTREME WEATHER

Jesuit has two built in lightning detectors (1) on the roof of their concession stand/bathroom bank on the south side of the main campus stadium which can be seen from the stadium and grass fields and (2) over the home side press box on the stadium field.   If the siren goes off simultaneously a light will begin to flash on top of the buildings which means there is lightning within 10 miles of the facility. The facility will be locked down for a minimum of 30 minutes.  Fans, players and coaches will be required to go to their cars.  No one is permitted to stay inside the athletic facility nor are they allowed to stand outside the gates for their own safety.  Any strike within 10 miles will reset the 30-minute clock on the lightening detectors.  The athletic facility is all clear when the siren blows 3 short blasts and the light stops flashing.   The gates to the facility will be unlocked by Jesuit personnel.  

Please be advised that games/practices may be called by the Referee’s, Jesuit Facility Manager OR Iron Horse  depending on how many minutes are left in the game OR the current radar status.   

EXTREME WEATHER:  In the event of extreme weather, the bathroom banks at south end of the stadium field and the north end of the grass field are to be used as shelter on the main campus.  If you are at the South Campus Practice Fields, Dove Fieldhouse will be used as emergency shelter.  

We have access at all times to an app that alerts us of any strikes within 30, 20 and 10 miles of the Jesuit campus and when we need to close the athletic facility as well as when we get the all clear. 

Please make sure your GameChanger account is up to date as we will post any weather related updates in the app to keep you up to date.  

Regards,

Tiffany Surran