The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Should we play? No clear answers
Those in media differ in opinions but agree on a key point: Sports will need to be played differently.
At Issue: Should we play? Each week five Georgia high school sports figures have discussed one issue affecting high school sports. This is the final installment.
For the past seven weeks, the AJC has provided an At Issue platform in which 35 coaches, administrators and area sports figures discussed important issues affecting Georgia’s high school sports.
But in the final analysis, and this final installment, there is only one issue that matters: Will high school football and other sports resume in August? Should high school football and the other sports resume in August? And what will high school football and other sports look like if they return in August?
To get to this answer, five people who have played, covered or directed coverage of GHSA sports for a combined 200-or-so years provide their opinions. The list includes former AJC staff writer I.J. Rosenberg, who founded Score Atlanta in 2004; Seth Ellerbee, a Score Atlanta writer who authored the At Issue project and covers Class AAA for the AJC; and former AJC staffers Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye, who co-founded Georgia High School Football Daily in 2009. Both companies partner with the AJC under contract status.
And there’s Tim Ellerbee, who retired from the AJC in 2014 but continues to direct the AJC’s high school coverage under contract status.
As you might expect, the opinions vary.
Todd Holcomb
The skinny: Holcomb, a Georgia native, has covered high school sports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the past 20 years. He has coordinated the AJC’s all-state football teams and state rankings for the past 15 years. In 2009, Holcomb and Chip Saye created Georgia High School Football Daily, an email newsletter that has more than 22,000 subscribers. Holcomb has been a principal researcher for the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, which he co-founded in 2004.
Holcomb: “If you ask me, high school football games won’t start in August. A full season won’t be played. Some Georgia high schools won’t have students in class this fall. Players will test positive for COVID-19, sending teammates into quarantine for two weeks. If opening night comes in October, players, coaches and fans should count it a victory.
“But the Georgia High School Association’s job isn’t to make predictions. The GHSA exists to serve and support its 450 member schools, not rule them. ‘You want to play football? Here’s how you do it without violating CDC and government restrictions.’
“Don’t give up on the scheduled Aug. 21 opening Friday night. It’s possible. Confer with the CDC and the GHSA’s sports-medicine advisory committee and set social-distancing, testing, sanitizing and other guidelines.
“The more realistic plan is October. Trim playoff teams to two per region. Play a seven-game regular season, with 16-team playoff brackets culminating Dec. 12. Moving the season into winter or spring won’t work. There are too many multisport coaches and athletes, not enough fields.
“The path toward August football is full of landmines.
“The GHSA can’t allow camps in June and July until an overwhelming majority of schools have committed to having students in class this fall. Even the July 27 official start to practice is optimistic, given no vaccine, no sustained regression in the curve, limited testing and considerable apprehension among superintendents and infectious-disease experts.
“The most explosive landmine will be the athlete who becomes infected with COVID-19. CDC guidelines recommend a twoweek quarantine for anyone coming into contact with an infected person. One infection can shut down a team, even a season. Once down, it’s hard to get up.
“Go slowly, and be realistic. An Oct. 2 kickoff sounds good right now.”
I.J. Rosenberg
The skinny: Rosenberg, an Atlanta native, played football for Hall of Fame coach Wayman Creel at Lakeside High School and went George Plimpton at the University of Alabama, where he wrote a diary for the student newspaper on playing football for the Crimson Tide. He spent 13 years working at the AJC, began his own sports marketing company in 2004 and is part owner of the Corky Kell Classic and other high school events.
Rosenberg: “There are 426 schools that play football in the state and come under the Georgia High School Association. The biggest school in the state is Mill Creek, with 3,998 students, and the smallest is Stewart County, with 124.
“So how, with the current pandemic, can all these teams get back on the field at the same time? How can school systems make it work and how do they assure parents their children are safe?
“The answer lies in testing. There are various methods of testing that differ in cost and time required for results.
“One method involves combining multiple samples tested, which is referred to as ‘pooling.’ There is an old-fashioned way of pooling tests and now a newer way, using algorithms, where according to computer scientists one test could ‘determine the health status of five, 10, or even more people.’ This method is advantageous in addressing testing shortages.
“Here are how the two ways work:
“We will start with the old way. In a pooled test, you would be combining biological material, like blood or saliva, from a group of players and test that combined material all at once. You could essentially take a team of 100 players and run five tests with 20 players’ samples pooled in each test. This would decrease the testing from 100 to five. If no one in that combined group is positive, then that entire group is cleared to play. The beauty of this is it can be used in areas of Georgia, especially central and southern parts of the state, where the incidence of COVID19 is lower and bigger groups could be tested at once.
“Conversely, if that pooled test comes back positive, each player who contributed toward that pool will have to be individually tested, requiring an additional 20 tests. Because this type of testing may require two rounds of testing to determine who the positive player(s) is, it may take twice as long as a new method that may soon be available.
“Studies are currently being researched to make the methods more efficient by using math and algorithms to test larger groups, essentially having to solve one giant math word problem. An oversimplified example would be: If Johnny’s blood is dropped into five vats A-E, and Fred’s into vats C-G and Tom’s into vats E-J, if vat D is the positive one, which person is positive? Here you would get answers after the first round of testing requiring more samples, but there would be fewer test kits and overall time.
“There are a multitude of benefits in weekly testing of a football team. First off, there is peace of mind for the parents of the football players. In addition, you will have gained weekly statistics of that local school to monitor increased cases and weekly figures for that county to monitor the increase of incidence in their county. Thus, the football team acts as a microcosm of the school and the community. “So, what does all this mean? “This type of testing could start with each county health department when the football players begin workouts in June, and by the time the season begins in late August, most players may be cleared to begin for the season.
“The coordination of a program like this would take time to organize and money, but is a much more definitive and practical way than testing everyone, and I am not sure that a season can be played without some type of testing, as a vaccine at best is more than a few months away.
“A decision must be made. I think the season should be played, but only if there is ample testing that assures our players are safe to return to the sport.”
Tim Ellerbee
The skinny: Ellerbee’s name first showed up on a high school sports roster at GHSA headquarters in 1968, and he has covered or directed coverage of Georgia high school sports for a large part of his 46-year career.
Ellerbee: “I think any discussion of high school football resuming in August has to begin with these assumptions: 1) that Gov. Brian Kemp and his health experts decide it’s time for kids to return to the classrooms; 2) that the GHSA, at the behest of its 450-member schools, decides it’s time for the kids to resume sports; 3) that school boards across the state decide it’s time for the kids to resume sports; 4) that parents across the state decide they will allow their kids to play sports.
“Then and only then can you begin dealing with central questions about how to begin the football season in August. What happens if 11 school districts in hardhit southwest Georgia and nine more across the state decide their schools will not play? How do you handle region play when three or four teams drop from the schedules in pockets across the state?
“And finally, how do you keep high school sports’ cash cow — football — from turning into a could-it-end season of uncertainty?
“I would suggest this: Flip the high school schedule and buy pandemic time. Traditional non-contact spring sports move to the fall. Traditional fall contact sports move to January.
“Move as many non-contact sports as possible to August starts — softball, volleyball and cross country as scheduled, then start baseball, golf, tennis, soccer and track as soon as you can get those sports up and running. Require players to self-distance and play in masks. No hugging after every kill, no bench huddles, and if you have a close-contact play in the infield, make the play and hustle away.
“Football could begin Dec. 27 with the Corky Kell Classic, then follow with a full schedule Jan. 8. The state finals could be played April 2-3. Basketball could begin the first week of February and end with state finals the second or third week of May. Wrestling could be slotted at any point during the second half of the school year, and lacrosse, rifle, esports, bass fishing, gymnastics and swimming could be slotted where they best fit.
“I’m sure we can find any number of reasons why this would not be possible, including disruptions for multi-sport athletes, coaching staffs, recruiting cycles and facility management. But overcoming those obstacles and playing certainly beats the alternative: sitting at home and not playing at all.
“Will there be concerns about securing state championship venues? Yes. But we can go back to spoiling the kids the next school year. If big-time facilities can’t be secured, play anywhere for one school year. Just play.
“My biggest fear is that the GHSA can do the greatest job possible to install safety precautions for an August football start-up, but what happens 10 days after the Kell Classic when the sport has its Rudy Gobert-NBA moment? What will you do on Aug. 28, when 12 kids who played against each other across the state get sick and test positive for the coronavirus?
“You’ll have to pull the plug, right? Yes. And by late August, football’s done.
“Each day’s developing news points to hot spots in Georgia and confirms that this virus isn’t going anywhere. So let’s wait a while before trying to stare it down.
“We don’t need to be like the kids in the TV commercial, who when faced with danger, run to the shed full of chainsaws. Jump in the car. Create distance.
“Flip the schedule and buy time.”
Chip Saye
The skinny: Saye began going to high school football games at age 6 in 1970, when his father took him to watch Henderson (which he would later attend), Lakeside and other DeKalb County schools play at DeKalb Memorial and Adams stadiums. Saye has covered games for four newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, since 1984. He also is the co-founder and co-producer of the Georgia High School Football Daily email newsletter.
Saye: “I, for one, can’t wait to see the Falcons, the local colleges and the state’s 400-plus high school football teams hit the field this fall.
“Obviously, 2020 will be different from previous seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic. The protocols that will be mandated regarding liability, insurance, player testing, player illnesses, fan attendance and more will be unlike anything the schools have ever faced, but a plan could be put in place to overcome those issues and greatly minimize risk.
“The COVID-19 data being tracked by the Georgia Department
of Public Health is encouraging. The original goal of flattening the curve was accomplished last month, and the numbers of daily positive tests, deaths, hospitalizations and ventilator use are now in steady decline. In fact, Georgia was among the first states to push forward with its reopening, and roughly three weeks since that decision, we have not seen the spikes in those numbers that many thought were inevitable.
“The reality, though, is that our state government officials and the Georgia High School Association leadership can only provide overall guidance, and the decision of whether to play ultimately will fall on local school boards, individual schools and parents. Not all of them will want to see football resume.
“From a logistical standpoint, that will create challenges. What happens if some schools choose to play and others don’t? What happens if a school announces its plans to play, but then has only a few kids come out for the team, or if it starts the season, but has to shut down because players start getting sick?
“The GHSA will need to have answers to those questions and a lot more and be prepared to respond to every situation. If not, the season might have to be called off before its conclusion, and that could be worse than not playing it at all. Just ask the spring-sports athletes who had their seasons abruptly ended in March.
“I’m hopeful that the football season begins on schedule in August, and if it does, I’ll be there every Friday night to watch the games. I’m just not overly optimistic it’s going to happen.”
Seth Ellerbee
The skinny: Seth Ellerbee, a 2006 graduate of Starr’s Mill, began covering high school sports in 2014 for Score Atlanta, where he works full time. In 2016, he took over the Class AAA football blog on AJC.com and has covered the past six football state championships for Score/AJC and championships in other sports. He is, by a long shot, the youngest panelist addressing this issue.
Ellerbee: “High school sports, as we know it, are over until there is a vaccine to treat the coronavirus, and that could take more than a year. It is as simple as that.
“The ‘as we know it’ part encompasses a vast number of changes that could be experienced in the fall, if sports return.
“What are sports as we know it? Fans, concession stands, bathrooms overflowing with people, musky buses, dank locker rooms, cheerleaders, bands, more fans, grandparents in the stands, more concession lines, travel time, celebrations, hugging parents, friends, other fans, seeing all of the administrators at the games, countless fence walkers, full press boxes, rowdy student sections, pep rallies and everything else that goes into a typical Friday night in Georgia.
“All of that is gone until we have a vaccine. There’s no other way around it.
“Can teams take the field? Maybe. Will it be 100% safe? No. Is it ever? No. Will adjustments have to be made? Yes, a lot of them. Do players avoid locker rooms? Do they leave the field in their uniforms and gear with parents or in their own cars? Do they enter a tent, one by one, taking off their gear to be washed and properly sanitized elsewhere? Do they shower in smaller groups in the locker room or avoid locker rooms altogether? What will it look like? Will the stands be empty? Should they be?
“If high school sports returns in August, the hardest thing to accept isn’t how to keep kids from getting this virus, but how to react when an athlete gets the virus. It is going to happen. It’s almost a statistical certainty.
“Does the GHSA quarantine an entire team or region? That has been discussed. Does the GHSA go back to square one and cancel everything? That’s obviously an option, as well.
“The dilemma of playing high school sports during a pandemic puts everyone — the GHSA, students, administrators and fans — in an impossible position where a decision will have to be made, either reactive or proactive, and that won’t be easy.
“As we stand, four months into the pandemic, the virus has infiltrated the White House, one of the more secure facilities in the world. That makes me believe it’s going to be really hard to keep it off a football field.”