Will the virus dim Texas’ Friday Night Lights?
ALEDO — In this town of 4,600, home to the Bearcats and a well of pride, Tim Buchanan, aka Coach Buc, watched his players arrive at the stadium before first light. It is like this every year: cleats hitting turf, shouted drills and the promise of another state title in December.
Aledo has come to expect this. The Bearcats have won a record nine championships, most recently last year. They are the town’s joy and occasional agony, the reason business slows Fridays as residents — even those without a child on the team — swagger into the 9,000seat stadium. But as players took the field this week, they heard a new command from Coach Buc: “Cover that nose up!”
Those words didn’t sound natural echoing out over the artificial turf, but this pandemic season of face masks, social distancing and temperature checks is changing — perhaps even endangering — the hallowed rhythms of Texas football. College scholarships, bragging rights and futures hang in the balance, to say nothing of mascots and autumn romances.
“I was nervous we weren’t going to play,” said Jaedon Pellegrino, 18, a senior and wide receiver whose brother is a teammate and whose family moved to Aledo from Yorba Linda, Calif., about six years ago.
As debate raged nationwide over whether and how schools will resume, some states canceled high school football or, like California, postponed it until winter. Gov. Greg Abbott has pushed for classes to start in August, and although some local health authorities have refused, football will return. As Hall of Fame Cowboy’s Coach Tom Landry said, “Football is to Texas what religion is to a priest,” and nothing is as revered as the high school version made famous by “Friday Night Lights.”
To save the season, rules have been adjusted and schedules altered. Texas leads the nation in high school football participation, with about 170,000 players, plus associated cheer squads and marching bands like Aledo’s award-winning Bearcat Regiment.
It could all be imperiled if players start testing positive for the coronavirus.
“They did a great job of putting together a plan to try to give us a chance,” Buchanan said. “… I honestly think our kids are safer at school and when they’re at practice because we’re going to make them social distance and follow the guidelines.”
Last week, officials announced that full-contact practices with helmets and pads for about 500 large schools like Aledo — which has roughly 1,900 students, including 250 football players — would be delayed until Sept. 7. The team’s first game against neighboring Weatherford was pushed back to Sept. 25 and the state championship — usually held before Christmas — was moved to January.
The league also imposed new pandemic training, travel and seating rules. Buses can only ferry two dozen students at a time, meaning Aledo will have to double its fleet for games to a half-dozen, plus band and cheer teams.
Stadiums will be limited to half capacity, and those who attend must wear masks. That’s a big deal in towns like Aledo, where the $11 million Bearcat Stadium complex is routinely packed and officials still hadn’t decided this week how to distribute tickets. A couple thousand fans also travel to attend away games.
The pandemic has reshaped this year’s football season in other ways too. Aledo is scheduled to start school on Aug. 19 (it wasn’t clear this week whether classes would be remote or in person). But as COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths spiked across Texas in July, several large districts delayed reopening, and with it football, including Aledo’s competitors in neighboring Tarrant County and to the south at Fort Bend Marshall, who they beat in the state championship last year.
Since Texas allowed on-campus strength and conditioning workouts in June, more than 200 schools have suspended workouts due to the virus. Some teams have added protective equipment, including helmet face shields. Buchanan opted against the shields, which he said could fog up and dislodge during play in Texas’ tripledigit heat.
But he planned to order hundreds of orange and black Bearcat gator face coverings this week with players’ numbers emblazoned on them. He hopes that delaying fullcontact practices until August will prevent players from becoming infected.
“Hopefully it won’t create more illnesses,” he said.
Buchanan, 60, has coached at Aledo since 1993. He’s diabetic, which puts him at added risk of contracting the virus. He’s careful to wear a mask and to keep his distance from players while running drills.
“When kids come up to shake my hand, I back away,” he said.
This town depends on Buchanan and the team he built to light up the scoreboard and carry it through the toughest bust Texas has seen. Aledo is one of more than a hundred Dallas-Fort Worth oil-dependent suburbs stunned by the economic downturn that has accompanied the pandemic.
Under the new rules, if a player is exposed to someone with COVID-19, shows symptoms or tests positive, they have to stop playing until they pass a medical screening. Aledo’s rules are even stricter. Last week, an Aledo player who tested positive had to self-quarantine for two weeks, along with his weight-lifting partner. Several others have already had to stay home from practice because they were exposed to relatives who tested positive.
Buchanan worries about his players most when they leave practice to mingle with friends and family. Several left Monday to have breakfast together at Aledo Diner, where they shed their masks to tuck into biscuits and gravy and other dishes listed as “Bearcat Specials.”
“I have a harder time getting the parents to wear masks,” Buchanan said.
The county surrounding Aledo has reported only 982 COVID-19 cases and eight deaths. But about 20 miles east, the county surrounding Fort Worth reported 25,739 cases and 343 deaths. Some parents in the stands Monday wore masks. A few didn’t.
Parents said they worried the new pandemic restrictions will hurt not just their sons’ play, but also their college prospects. Many of Aledo’s 65 varsity players, including 42 seniors, have spent years preparing for this season. Others moved to Aledo for the chance to join the team. Some have already committed to powerhouse teams like Louisiana State University.
“I would have preferred to just do business as normal,” said Aaron Valencia, who didn’t wear a mask as he watched his son Eli train to play safety. “I’m not worried about the COVID. It’s good to have these kids out here.”
Valencia said he was laid off from his job as a manager at a chemical company due to the pandemic.
“I know more people who have been laid off than have COVID,” he said.
Sitting in the stands nearby, Calvin Flinta, a U.S. Army veteran who works at the Veteran’s Administration, said he also knows a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs.
“At least we have football,” said Flinta, 48, whose son Logan is a senior hoping to score a football scholarship like his older brother did at the University of Arizona.