CVC teams mostly still waiting to hold preseason workouts
It seems to be a waitand-see approach for the vast majority of Colonial Valley Conference football teams when it comes to the matter of getting their preseason preparation underway.
Under state guidelines, the so-called Phase 1 for high school football got underway Monday with teams allowed two weeks to work on conditioning drills only.
As near as can be determined, the only CVC teams that reportedly took advantage of Phase 1 on Monday were Notre Dame and Allentown. With the regular season now postponed until the first week of October, the rest of the teams are holding off until later this summer.
One such team is Lawrence, which came on strong in the first year of Rob Radice back at the helm last season and is looking forward to what promises to be a successful campaign.
“It’s really up to our school district and whatever else the state may decide, but right now we have no definite plans to do anything until September,’’ said Radice. “Our (school) district is still working on a reopening plan. There are so many pieces of the puzzle that still have to be figured out.’’
There are, indeed, a lot of variables when it comes to getting things underway. Unless a program cheats during Phase 1 — balls are not supposed to be used in any way — there’s really not a whole lot to be accomplished at this point.
This is especially true when you consider the real games are nearly three months away. Furthermore, there are all kinds of restrictions on what teams can and can not do. Normally prior to the formal start of practice teams engage in 7-on7s, but those have been banned this year.
Another thing to consider: Is it really worth putting the health of the players at risk with such limited returns as to what teams accomplish prior to the official pre-season practice?
The state has also mandated there will be a “dead period’’ from Aug. 28 to Sept. 13. Apparently the thinking there is to suspend athletics for two weeks so the students can re-acclimate themselves to going back to school.
“I get that as a teacher,’’ said Radice. “The academics come first.’’
Pending further developments, whether there actually will be any football at all remains an open question. With the original schedules confined to the scrap heat because teams are going to be limited to the number of games they can play, there’s also the matter of figuring out who will play whom.
“That’s an excellent question,’’ said Radice. “I’m hearing the thinking is to go to schedules based more on geography. You will play schools near to you to limit the traveling.’’
In the case of Mercer County, this would result in schedules much like the ones prior to the formation of the West Jersey Football League.
The word is WJFL officials are currently working out the new schedules, although when they will be announced is unclear.