YAKIMA – Football isn’t the only thing in the air.

With practice a week away, and coaches focused on heights, weights and 40 times, another number, which is becoming just as routine year after year, is again being eyeballed – the AQI.

As wildfires and their lingering smoke have become more prevalent in recent years, the Air Quality Index – which measures how clean or polluted outdoor air is – helps decide whether high school practices head indoors, and games are postponed, canceled or moved.

“It feels like this is going to be a long smoke season this fall,” Cashmere athletic director Jeff Carlson said last week.

Unfortunately, Carlson has become keen to the impact of poor air quality on high school sports. Last school year, with the Chelan County school being hit from multiple fronts, the Bulldogs were impacted significantly.

Cashmere’s Week 1 game against Wapato became a road contest, while neighboring Wenatchee also moved its opener and Eastmont was forced to scrap its season debut.

Beyond games, practices also have to be rethought. While a basketball court for five-a-side during the winter, it hinders what football teams can recreate post snap.

And soccer teams also are limited.

As a refresher, leagues and districts generally follow the Department of Health's Washington Children and Youth Activities Guide for Air Quality.

The color-coded guide, coupled with the current air quality (which can be found a AirNow.gov or wasmoke.blogspot.com), give athletic directors a road.

In short, AQI scores of 0-50 are colored green and represent good air quality. Moderate (51-100, yellow) is acceptable air quality.

Orange (101-150) is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, but the general public is less likely to be impacted.

Red – the unhealthy level with a score of 151-200 – halts outdoor activities, moving practices inside or to a time when the air quality is acceptable, and alters game schedules.

Purple (201-300) and maroon (301 and greater) represent the worse conditions.

Of course, the conditions can change often, resulting in a moving target.

In West Valley on Wednesday, conditions were solidly in the green in the morning, but had fallen into the red in the mid-afternoon.

By 7 p.m., however, with winds kicking up and flushing some of the smoke, the AQI was in the low end of orange, and forecast to drop further.

While football practice starts Wednesday, Aug. 19, the rest of the fall sports get going Monday, Aug. 24.