Hyde wants clarity on schoolboy football health protocols

In the wake of the InterSecondary Schools Sports Association’s (ISSA) announcement of a tentative date to start the 2020 schoolboy football season, Clarendon College head coach Lenworth Hyde says that he is now awaiting information on how this year’s competitions will be conducted, as well as the revised protocols for training.

On Tuesday ISSA said that they were targeting a mid- to lateOctober start for the campaign, in addition to basketball and netball, but only with approval from the local authorities as they seek to navigate through the coronavirus pandemic and the reopening of schools for September. Hyde, coach of the reigning daCosta Cup and Olivier Shield champions, said that while he will be adjusting his preseason preparations, he needs clarification on possible changes regarding the duration.

“We will start the end of July, so we will have at least two months to prepare for the October start. So it’s basically the same thing compared with the last season,” Hyde told STAR Sports. “I just want to know the duration of the league, how long the league will last.”

ISSA has been in discussions with various stakeholders, including medical experts, recently regarding possible protocols on how to resume play safety. While Hyde said that they will adopt any measures that they finalise, he noted that it will change in how he conducts his preseason preparations.

“It’s going to be difficult when you are training and you need to get all 11 players together,” he said. “So we have to improvise and try and do it as best as we can. If you have six in a group here and six and a group there, you are going to have more than one coach. So it’s going to be a bit difficult, but I think we will adjust and try and get it right.”

He said that he hopes to draw inspiration European leagues that have been restarted in figuring out how to conduct practice sessions safely.