Padilla 1

Estevan Padilla
Pamela Reed
Composition 1
12 October 2015
The Importance of Hydration for High School Athletes
In Arkansas each year, high schools are mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association
to hold hydration meetings for students, parents and the coaching staff. The Arkansas
Department of Health partners with the Arkansas Activities Association in these meetings,
providing support. During these meetings there is a short video, a pop quiz along with
information that stresses the importance of hydration and things that all of us should be aware of:
signs and symptoms of dehydration and how to properly hydrate prior to practice or competition.
When dehydrated you have a different feeling in your body. According to U. S. National
Library of Medicine when you have moderate dehydration you become thirsty, your mouth
becomes dry or sticky, there is a decrease in urine output or your urine is a darker yellow, your
skin becomes dry, cool to the touch, and you can experience headaches in addition to muscle
cramps. With severe dehydration there is not much urination at all with urine becoming a dark
amber in color, you can become irritable or confused, experience dizziness or lightheadedness,
your heartbeat becomes rapid, and you can become unconscious or experience delirium.
This image, reminds me of my senior year, first football game of the season against
Pulaski Robinson. The ramifications of not being properly hydrated were never more visible and
evident to me than during this game. Luckily, earlier during that week it was cooler, but that

Padilla 2
Friday when it was time to play, there was a heat wave. Every few plays, someone was coming
off the field with leg cramps. The only thing to explain this, is that apparently someone did not
pay attention during the meeting or did not take they information provided seriously.
With that being said, the image chosen to visually analyze, has a football player on the
ground. The player is in an extreme amount of pain because he has a cramp in his leg. The image
has a trainer stretching out the players leg, and he has given him water so he can get hydrated
properly. When you do not properly hydrate before a sporting event this can happen. The image
that was taken is trying to get a point across to the parents, and the athletes. There are
consequences if you do not hydrate properly. Things like heat cramps, heat strokes, and even
death.
The people surrounding this football player in this image seem worried. Which if this
ever happens then you should be worried. A little heat cramp is only a small ramification of what
could happen to any athlete if they get dehydrated. Being dehydrated like in this image can lead
to getting hurt while doing any physical activity. From experience, our bodies are basically
biological machines. If one thing is not right with the machine it does not operate correctly.
Therefore, we need to properly maintain our bodies so they can function on an everyday basis.
This means giving our bodies the basic necessities, such as proper nutrients in addition to
hydrating.
Another thing that is noticeable in the image is the haziness in the background where one
football team is standing. This haziness in this image can mean that most people do not really
understand how important hydrating is. It is almost as if people are blind about what can happen
to any athlete. With the background being blurry you can notice that the people in the far back
really are not paying attention to the problem. With this some people really do not understand

Padilla 3
how bad it can be if you do not hydrate. Some people look at hydration as if it is a big joke and it
really is not. It is a serious and dangerous thing that can lead to the death of a human being.
Some questions to think about when looking at the image are What position on the issue
does the object imply?, To what audience is this image directed?, and Do you think it is
successful? Why or why not? When thinking about these questions it can help you look at the
bigger picture of the image. Another thing that this can do is help you identify the audience and
the purpose of taking the picture.
The position on the issue that the image implies is the importance of hydration and what
it can do if you do not hydrate properly. The audience of this image is athletes and the parents of
the athletes. It shows what can happen if proper hydration precautions are not put into place. The
last thing to think about is if this image was successful or if it wasnt. This image is not as
successful because just glancing at the image all you notice is an athlete on the ground with a
cramp. You really do not notice the water that he is drinking at first and you dont realize why he
is on the ground. The athlete is on the ground because he did not hydrate properly, not because
he got hurt playing football.
There are websites that show the importance of staying hydrated such as the American
Heart Association. On this website they stated that water is not just good for athletes, but it is
good for the every day person. With that being said every person should have some knowledge
about hydration and how it can affect your life. The image that the American Heart Association
had on their website shows a person running with water bottle. This can show that water is what
you need when you are doing any physical activity.

Padilla 4
Every year there are millions of athletes that get ready for their sports season. However
some of them do not know how important it is to hydrate before, during and after their sport
sanctioned event. With this companies, and health related programs try and find a way to let you
know how important it is to hydrate. They come up with good images to show you what can
happen if you do not hydrate properly.

Padilla 5

Padilla 6
Works Cited
Batson, John, M.D. "Staying Hydrated - Staying Healthy." Heart.org. American Heart
Association, 25 June 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/Stayi
ng-Hydrated---Staying-Healthy_UCM_441180_Article.jsp#.ViRHFzZdHIU>.
Hennen, Scott. "FOOTBALL: Athletes Battle Heat, Cramps in Many Ways." ThisWeek
Community News. ThisWeekSports.com, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/clintonville/sports/2011/09/07/athletesbattle-heat-cramps-in-many-ways.html>.
Kaneshiro, Niel K., M.D, David Zieve, M.D, and Bethanne Black. "Dehydration: MedlinePlus
Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
<https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000982.htm>.
"Exertional Heat Illness Project." ADH: Exertional Heat Illness Project. Arkansas Department of
Health, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/programsServices/hsLicensingRegulation/EmsandTrau
maSystems/Pages/EHI.aspx>.

Padilla 7
Peer Review
Monica: I took her advice on some grammar things.
Dustin: I took his advice on the introduction paragraph, and corrected the redundancy.
Jerry: I took his advice on some grammar things, and the introduction paragraph.
Dillon: I took his advice on going more into detail about the image. He went over my paper
during the first peer review.