Workouts begin for programs with safety guidelines in place
Greetings were slightly different as in-person strength and conditioning camps opened for high school athletes across Houston on Monday morning.
Cypress Ranch senior tight end Ben Postma noted one with his position coach.
“Whenever I walked past him, he saw me, (and) he gave me an air high-five about 6 feet away,” said
Postma, a Georgia Tech commit.
Postma also saw a pair of teammates who were unable to step out of their place in line before workouts using FaceTime to greet each other.
This summer will be full of funny but necessary sights like those with the University Interscholastic League allowing athletic programs to conduct summer training camps. Workouts have been altered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, requiring adherence to numerous rules and creating a summer strength and conditioning program unlike any other.
Warmup lines and lines to get into facilities will be spaced out more than usual, with people expected to keep a distance of at least 6 feet from each other. Times may vary among programs this summer, but at Grand Oaks in Conroe, it took approximately 45 minutes to get athletes through check-in and instruction on safety precautions before
Monday’s workouts began.
The UIL is prohibiting sharing water, so many players carried their own gallons of water with their names marked on them Monday.
Although the hoops that coaches and players must jump through are plentiful, they are in the name of safety and an uninterrupted start to the 2020 season come August.
“I think they handled it pretty well,” Postma said of Monday’s experience. “All of the coaches are just mindful, telling everybody the moment that the camp is done you don’t sit there and talk to players and talk to your teammates and stuff. You have to leave.”
There was still some excitement around the day. Coaches and players have been apart for three months, communicating only through virtual means. Simply seeing faces in person was more than enough to delight some.
“You always appreciate your kids,” Conroe football coach Cedric Hardeman said. “But when this is your passion and the kids are the reason you do it, just to see them back working, it made me feel happy.”
Teams mostly are easing into workouts. It was a light day Monday at Lamar, and the workouts will be dialed up Tuesday. Senior wide receiver Jacoby Boykins also said interaction with his teammates was a highlight.
“Going into my senior year, I felt great being around my friends, coaches, and seeing others work as hard as I do,” Boykins said. “Also, the feeling of the freshmen asking me about the school, asking me how to catch the coaches’ attention, the leadership that I carry at Lamar High School all around.”
While it was an active day at many schools, that wasn’t the case everywhere Monday.
For two-time defending Class 6A Division I football state champion North Shore, the day was filled with temperature checks and paperwork.
Not every football program started Monday, either. Fort Bend Marshall, which is coming off consecutive Class 5A Division II state championship games, starts Wednesday. Same with Stratford’s football team in Spring Branch.
Aldine Davis’ football program would have started camp Monday, but construction around the facilities pushes what senior defensive back Darius Howard calls a “family reunion” back for now.
“I think the environment is what you’re excited to get back to,” Howard said. “Just being around everybody, seeing everybody, competition. The competition is probably the best part of strength and conditioning camp. All of the things you just miss from sports is what you’re ready to get back to.”
Players have a sense they can handle this. Postma said once the exercising started, he felt the familiar feeling a normal strength and conditioning camp brings.
He believes Cypress Ranch is equipped for this, considering the last three months.
“It’s been kind of a long time away from the team and away from coaches, but we’ve been doing Zoom calls and calling each other, and we’ve been in contact and making sure that we understand the playbook,” Postma said. “We’ve just been making sure to stay in touch and have everything go well.”