BACK TO NORMAL
HOW COVID-19 ALTERED THE LOCAL FOOTBALL LANDSCAPE FROM PRESEASON
PREPARATION TO GAMEDAY IN 2020, AND THE RETURN TO NORMAL FOR 2021
By Michael Baron
mbaron@npco.com
The COVID-19 pandemic has
affected every aspect of our
lives.
We have come a long way, developing
vaccines to combat the
spread of the disease. But before
a vaccine was widely available for
distribution among the masses,
steps had to be taken to ensure
safety, stem concern and mitigate
transmission. Those steps were felt
even within the local sports scene.
A high-contact sport like football
faced hurdles in its return.
As spring turned to summer, the
Georgia High School Association
set about creating a timetable to
bring a massive fall tradition to
fruition.
Socially-distanced conditioning
was allowed to resume on June
8, but only in groups of up to 20
athletes at one time. Following
the July 4 holiday, the number
expanded to 50 athletes with
intra-squad 7-on-7s permitted.
In late July, group restrictions
were lifted in conjunction with
the acclimatization period. Finally,
full pads were allowed beginning
Aug. 1 in the run up to
the 2020 season, which began
in early September.
8 PIGSKIN 2021
“Last summer, … we’re having
to take temperatures and chart every
single kid,” Darlington Tigers
head coach Tommy Atha said in
June. “You start thinking about
things like making sure you know
who’s sitting beside who on the
bus, knowing who’s working out
with who in each weight rack.”
The methodical progression of
resuming football prep work and
the fluidity of the situation meant
that everyone had to be ready to
adjust.
Pepperell Dragons head coach
Rick Hurst said the most difficult
aspect of last year’s summer was
getting his players back conditioned
and acclimated for a full,
10-game regular season.
“When you miss two and a half
months in the weight room, that’s
tough,” Hurst said. “It was getting
them back strength-wise, getting
them back in condition. We’re having
to run them in multiple groups,
so you couldn’t really do anything
as a unit until after July 4.”
High school stadiums even
took mitigation efforts, including
requiring masks for entry,
providing areas for hand sanitization,
introducing social-distancing
measures by blocking off
every other row of seats and not
allowing any spectators onto the
field following a game.
For the two college football programs
in Floyd County, the Berry
Vikings and the Shorter Hawks,
their respective fall seasons never
took place. Instead, each school
had a four-game spring season.
For Shorter, a member of NCAA
Division II’s Gulf South Conference,
head coach Zach Morrison said the
schedule changed multiple times,
then was ultimately cancelled, so
it became a matter of scheduling
independent games.
Of the eight teams within the Gulf
South Conference, only three played
any games during the spring. The
Hawks played the most with four.
Berry College’s conference, the
Southern Athletic Association (SAA),
held intra-conference contests only
between February and March.
Head coach Tony Kunczewski’s
players reported for preseason
camp on Jan. 11 and kicked off
their season just over one month
later on Feb. 13.
“It was extremely challenging,”
Kunczewski said. “It was kind of
surreal too. I felt like there were
often times when I was standing
out on the practice field in January
thinking ‘I cannot believe I’m
doing what I am doing right now.’
In coaching in general and certainly
in football, … you pretty much
know exactly what you’re going to
be doing for all 12 months of the
year. To play games in February
and March, that was just different
just because your biological clock,
so to speak, is off.”
As mandated by the SAA, Berry
College was only allowed to
have on-campus students, faculty
and staff at its lone home
game during the four-contest
spring campaign. Masks were
required at all times.
However, the spirit of competition
was never in doubt; the
players and coaches were just
happy to be out there doing what
they love.
“In terms of the preparation for
games, in terms of the intensity of
games, in terms of the meaning of
games, there was zero difference,”
Kunczewski said. “In fact, I think
you could argue sometimes it may
have been more intense and more
physical just because you knew you
were playing about half the amount
of games you normally do.”
It may still be sweltering outside,
but fall football has arrived. The
stadiums will once again be filled,
and with a full preseason of work
under their belts, the student-athletes
of the community look to reach
new heights and achieve goals set
for a successful 2021.
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