Football season is coming to a close and so far, not major interruptions have affected our school. However, last week’s game with Liberty was cancelled due to COVID-19 at their school.

Having no masks on almost the whole time and being so close to people, not only from your school but other schools as well, comes with some concerns. Coach Place, head coach of the team, works hard to keep his players safe at games and practices.  

“If the player’s helmets are on, their mask is off,” Coach Place said. “We [coaches] probably have more safety than most. The number of people at the games, number of practices, and no huddles allowed or sharing water all attribute to this.”

The rule against huddling could be affecting the team because of having no time to talk about what can be improved. Positive reinforcement is very important when it comes to working with anyone that could be getting stressed out. So everyone would usually turn to watching film with your team to make up for lack of communication during the situation. Although that is also not allowed.

“Players haven’t been able to watch film,”  Place said. “That’s one more day they are exposed. We weren’t even allowed to have preseason. On travel games, there is a limit of fifty players so we probably end up leaving 30 kids. It’s hard because its tough for the players not being there for their team.”

Everyone has been so overwhelmed and jumbled, nobody has time to plan anything. This definitely does affect a bunch of people, but sports is all about planning and working together to do the best you can in the season.

“It’s just a year where everyone has to be flexible, especially being a coach who has everything mapped out and things are changing weekly,” Place said.

The football team seems to be affected by this pandemic as much as everyone else, but they are handling everything pretty well with a 7-1 record and they are making sure everyone is safe by following the school and state guidelines.