The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Doctor ‘cautiously optimistic’ on NFL plans
First day of fall practices scheduled for Aug. 1
“We want to rely on all of the other tools around us to ensure that they are safe,” doctor says.
High school football coaches, players and athletic trainers are gearing up for the first official day of practice Aug. 1.
While the day on the calendar is the same, practices are sure to be different as the novel coronavirus pandemic has prompted teams to adjust their procedures.
Columbia head coach Jason Ward is shortening his teams practices and is following guidelines that were released last week by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association. The guidelines propose teams conduct one three-hour practice or a pair of two 75-minute practices with an hour break in between. Ward chose to do the former.
“We feel like we can get everything we need to get done done in three hours,” Ward said.
The Raiders are coming in an hour early in order to complete a health screening and answer questions before they start practicing.
“We’ve got three groups that are going to rotate through the locker room so that we can maintain social distancing,” Ward said.
The team’s practice structure will be different from year’s past.
A change that will likely be seen across the state as teams get back on the field.
“We’ll have landmarks for the kids to stand on and the face masks are on in all situations except for drills. Those are the things that we’re going to be emphasizing a lot.” — Olmsted Falls coach Tom DeLuca
“The science tells you that if you are around someone that has (the virus) for more than 15 minutes, the likelihood of you getting it skyrockets,” said Ward. “In the (OHSFCA) proposal that was put out, it was recommended to have no more than nine-minute sessions with a break in between those sessions. That’s what we’re going to follow.”
Despite Ward and his staff needing to change their routine, it’s a welcomed sight for Ward as he begins his 15th year as head coach of the Raiders.
“I kind of like the way it’s set up, it’s more of a highintensity type of structure,” Ward said. “We tried it out for the first time (July 29) during one of our camp days and it was good so that’ll be OK.”
A staple at football practices and games is the communal water station. A place where players congregate to re-hydrate by drinking water out of the same
machine. Due to COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the water stations — at least for now — will be a thing of the past.
“Everyone is going to have to bring their own water and we gave them designated spots around the field, five yards apart,” Ward said. “That’s where they’ll set their water bottles and when we break, they’ll go to that spot. That’s been the hardest part ... the guys tend to want to get together. We had to harp on them constantly about staying separated. What we did with the water bottles should help us.”
Ward added that during film sessions, the groups of players watching together will be smaller.
The main area of focus for Olmsted Falls head coach Tom DeLuca and his staff will be teaching his players how to social distance at practice.
“That would be the top priority for us,” said DeLuca. “We’ll have landmarks for the kids to stand on and the face masks are on in all situations except for drills. Those are the
things that we’re going to be emphasizing a lot.”
The Bulldogs will also be changing up their warmup procedure to make sure the team is properly socially distanced.
“We’re going to modify how we warm up and we’re going to be spaced out,” said DeLuca.
Despite all of the changes, Ward and DeLuca said their players are taking everything in stride.
“They are very resilient,” said Ward. “They can handle pretty much anything thrown at them. After what happened to the majority of them in the spring, losing their baseball and track seasons, they are just happy to be out there. They just want to play. I don’t think they care how much it looks different.”
DeLuca said despite the pandemic, Olmsted Falls’ participation numbers are higher this season than they ever have been.
“The kids have been outstanding,” DeLuca said. “They are resilient and I’ll be honest, sometimes I feel like the kids are more resilient than adults. They come
to practice and we ask them to do the certain things that are necessary and they do them. They go with the flow and do what they need to do.”
Not only will things be different for football teams and coaches come Aug. 1, athletic trainers are also preparing for changes to their routines.
“We’re not going to allow as many student-athletes into the training room as we have in the past,” said Ann Hamker, a certified athletic trainer at Elyria High School. “We spend a lot of time with preventative medicine so I’ll have to do that more in a group setting outside.”
Despite having to make minor changes, Hamker said her and her staff won’t be impacted on a large scale.
“For the most part, nothing is going to change for us because we run a pretty tight ship to begin with,” Hamker said. “We wipe all of our surfaces down in between kids and we always have. For the most part, (we’ll) just keep our (proper) distance and wear our masks.”