Even as smaller programs hit field, season feels shaky
The slot underneath the Week 1 countdown clock is vacant at La Marque, even though the Cougars have an opponent.
There are plans to open the season against another Class 4A team in Stafford on Aug. 28, but like everything else in Texas high school football during the COVID-19 era, it is tentatively scheduled.
Monday, when Class 4A and smaller programs start fall practice in Texas, might provide familiar scenes and comfort even if filled with temperature checks, masks and social distancing. The fear that COVID-19 could change things again still lingers, though.
“And our kids know that,” said La Marque football coach Shone Evans. “We don’t know. Everything can change in a moment’s notice. One week you could be playing, and you could get a call when you’re on the bus headed somewhere and be told that the game is off. The safety of the kids has to be No. 1, and the district, the UIL, I think everyone’s common goal is to keep everyone safe. COVID just seems like it’s something that’s going to be here.”
The 741 Class 1A-4A football teams — not all are able to start practicing Monday — will be the state’s first guinea pigs for how a contact sport will fare.
The University Interscholastic League’s revised fall schedule includes a fragmented football season.
Class 6A and 5A teams start fall training Sept. 7, with a regular season start of Sept. 24-26. Week 1 for 4A and smaller begins Aug. 27.
The smaller schools can scrimmage against other teams in three weeks — another major test of safety protocols.
Evans noted the positive cases that sprang up among Major League Baseball teams last week in a sport that is naturally social distanced, even if not played in a bubble.
When and how football teams go full-contact will vary.
Evans’ players won’t wear shoulder pads until next week. But he’s heard one team might start practicing in shoulder pads as soon as Saturday, and another might only tackle a few times before the first game.
At Needville, coach Mike Giles says his team normally isn’t aggressive with its tackling in practice to keep players healthy. It won’t change much. Giles feels his players can handle the turbulence COVID-19 causes.
“The way we practice, the things we do and how we do them, we force that uncomfortableness,” Giles said. “Not that anybody can be prepared for what’s going on, but as we talk to them each day and the changes having to be made, they just have to take that in stride because they are used to things being uncomfortable for them.”
Evans said he expects full participation in fall practice from his varsity team, citing a senior-laden squad, but he is unsure what his subvarsity teams will look like.
Some parents are withholding their children from athletics to protect against the virus, which he said is understandable and won’t be held against the athletes. More parents throughout the state might do the same as the season nears.
Summer strength and conditioning camps went from virtual to in-person and back to virtual or even stopping altogether with positive cases rising in the state. Some teams will play catch-up starting Monday.
Columbus coach Matt Schobel said the offseason went mostly undisturbed for last year’s 3A Division I state semifinalists. It’s one reason why 4A and smaller teams in rural areas are starting before 6A-5A programs in larger cities where the virus’ impact has been pronounced.
The only halt in summer workouts for Columbus was the UILrecommended break through the Independence Day holiday.
Some spent the last few weeks piecing together schedules destroyed by the UIL’s revised calendar. Many nondistrict games featured 6A and 5A teams playing 4A teams.
Then, political jousting caused more changes. Health officials in the state’s five largest counties — Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis — ordered their school districts to prohibit in-person learning through at least Labor Day, which also meant extracurricular activities were banned.
The order was expected to wipe out many regular-season games for 4A and smaller teams in these counties.
But on Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a guidance letter saying state law does not allow local health authorities to order the closure of schools as a preemptive measure to curb COVID-19’s spread, opening the door for school districts to go against county orders.
After all of that, Evans said his coordinators called around in preparation for holes in their own team’s slate.
“The sad thing is, somebody said we might want to think of where all the people we’re trying to play are at and see if their county judge is a Republican,” Evans said.