There is a specific kind of heat in the center of the calendar and in central North Carolina, a heat that settles into the bones of anyone who lives in the mid-foothills in any of the few southeastern states. “A heat that sings,” some would call it; my father often chooses to rightly identify it as “hotter than fish fat.” Either way, the three digits on your car’s dashboard belie a real sensation that is often seven to ten degrees hotter in that brutal summer sun. The heat and humidity will leave you without water on the way from the car to the grocery store, so imagine sprinting with it.
On a construction site, “hot work” is defined as riveting, welding, flame cutting or other work that produces fire or sparks. Many actions that are completely necessary to join and reinforce steel or other materials require incredibly high heat. Extra precautions must be taken, of course, but the work would not be possible without those high temperatures. A quick weld joining two previously less useful pieces of steel can produce a much more useful support or a support beam capable of supporting a much greater load.
Next season is fast approaching, still far away but closing ground quickly. Before we know it, we’ll see the fruits of the work the team is putting in now: all the runs with weighted sleds and the wind-driven sprints in the beating sun; the hours spent learning route trees and practicing defensive dropbacks or pass-rush moves. These long, unseen hours of work are meant to strengthen the team, to make each individual part better and more resilient and more prepared to respond to the rigors of a regular season. They also serve, ideally, to bring the team together, to bind these players from all over into a cohesive unit, irrevocably bonded by hard work in the North Carolina heat.
This work is hard, but it is necessary. The reward will be even sweeter for the work done and the heat endured. I for one can’t wait to see what this team is capable of. After all, the hot work is being done now, and the end result of that work should result in a stronger, more cohesive team. If those joints turn out to be fragile, like some poor welds? We can always apply that same heat to something else. For example, to a seat.
In any case, even on these hot summer days, it’s a great day to be a Tar Heel.