Fasting Muslim athletes juggle faith and sports

As the heat index surpasses 100 degrees this week, playing outdoor sports can be challenging for any athlete.

Throw in a religious requirement like fasting, and the task becomes even more daunting.

High school students who play fall sports or in competitive marching bands are outside in brutal heat every day.

Coaches and music directors are constantly directing the kids to "hydrate," - drink water, or a fortified water that replenishes their electrolytes and keeps them from passing out, or worse.

Raja Umair-Amjad of Des Plaines, a senior football player at Maine East in Park Ridge, can only watch as his teammates head to the sidelines for a slug of water. He can't stop for a snack, either.

"It gets tough especially when you see other guys go for water breaks," said 17-year-old Umair-Amjad, who is fasting for Ramadan, the Islamic holy month in which Muslims abstain from food and drink from before sunrise until sunset to learn self-restraint.

"I try not to think about it too much. I just keep pushing myself and know I can get through it. It's all mental."

Umair-Amjad said he has played football all four years in high school, and fasted each time. Yet, it's never been this hot before, he said.

That's because Ramadan hasn't coincided with summer for over a decade. Each year, it moves back 11 days based on the lunar calendar.

For most Chicago area Muslims, Wednesday marked the first fast of Ramadan, which ends Sept. 9.

Umair-Amjad said he prepares for training by drinking a lot of water and Gatorade, and eating lots of carbohydrates as part of a pre-dawn meal before starting his fast at 4:30 a.m.

"I know how to work through it," he said. But if it ever got to the point where he could pass out, the coach would just tell him to sit it out, he added.

There aren't many Muslim athletes who play high school sports in the Chicago area. The few who do say they juggle religious obligations with their sporting aspirations through will power, and the support of teammates and coaches.

"They are very accommodating and I love that about them," said Samar Khan, a sophomore at Hinsdale South High School, who started tennis practice on the first day of fasting. "They know if I am lagging behind it's not because I'm slacking. It's because I'm trying to physically pace myself."

Illinois High School Association spokesman Matt Troha said the IHSA does not have special guidelines for fasting athletes, nor does it tell schools when it's too hot to play.

"That would be a decision between an athlete, coach, parent and athletic director," Troha said. "It would just be too impossible (for us) to say this temperature is too hot to practice. We really just have to put the onus on our schools."

Hersey High School athletic trainer Hal Hilmer said if a player is fasting, it's probably better to sit out practice when it gets really hot.

"It just would not be in their best interest," said Hilmer, who has never had a player fast during practice. "The proper accommodations would be made to accommodate their religious beliefs, but we wouldn't want to put them in harm's way."

Khan said she's not bothered by hunger during her daily two-hour tennis practice.

"But the heat gets to me even on a day that I've eaten and drink lots of water," said Khan, 14, of Darien. "Sometimes, I do need to sit out. In the morning when we get up to start our fast, I make sure I drink as much water as I could possibly fit in."

With or without food, tennis can be a testy sport with tempers often flaring into shouting matches between players, Khan said.

Khan said her fasting helps her have better sportsmanship.

"It's (about) being patient," Khan said. "You can't get angry when you're fasting so I have to really work on controlling my temper and not lashing out on my opponent."

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