The high school athletic season got started this week with full practices on Monday with quite a different look from the past.
No matter what sport, all coaches were wearing masks along with some student athletes who were not participating. Rules have been put in place for social distancing for on and off the field. North Platte head football coach Reis Wright told the Platte County Citizen it’s been a challenge that he gladly accepts.
“Getting a bunch of teenagers to wear a mask is real easy,” Wright said sarcastically. “I’d rather be doing that then not playing football.”
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) recently released guidelines and rules for each sport to follow. Some changes are more subtle than others. For instance, players and coaches won’t be restricted to stay inside the 25-yard line. The boundary will be extended to the 10-yard line. When speaking to umpires players and coaches will need to have a mask on.
In softball some of the rules and guidelines include limiting the number of players in the dugout and not allowing coaches inside the pitching circle on visits to the mound.
“It will be interesting,” West Platte head softball coach Bailey Giger told the newspaper.
Giger said some of the other interesting rules include the umpire not touching the ball and lineup cards will be exchanged via text message.
Giger said she’s cautiously optimistic the season will get going and they will be able to finish; but she also doesn’t like looking too far ahead.
Giger said she sent out an email to parents with the plans for the first two weeks of practice but isn’t making set-in-stone plans beyond that.
“Who knows?” Giger said. “Every day is different. You plan for today and that’s it.”
Farrah Seckel, North Platte head softball coach, told the Platte County Citizen that she reduced the amount of informal practices last month because of health department data.
“It just seemed like a moving target from the health department,” Seckel said.
Seckel said it’s tough wearing a mask because it impedes what she needs to do as a coach.
“This is a sport where I’m yelling a lot and I need to project to the outfielders” Seckel said. “What are you going to do? At least they get to play. We’re just hoping they don’t make it so difficult that we don’t get to play.”
West Platte head football coach Jim Newsted is in his first year at the helm for the Bluejays and got the job just before COVID-19 hit. Newsted said he’s worried about his players getting their season taken away by COVID-19. Last year’s starting quarterback, Luke Heili broke his leg in the third game and had to miss the rest of the season. Newsted hopes he gets a chance to finish the season.
“He’s pretty hungry so I hope the coronavirus doesn’t affect him,” Newsted said. “We’re hoping things go smooth.”
Wright said the whole COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone to some extent. He believes from the start coaches should have been given more direction about how to handle the situation. He said all the coaches talk but it’s pretty much been left up to each school.
“I’m not an infectious disease expert,” Wright said. “If they’re telling us ‘XYZ’ then I’m assuming that’s what we need to do. What we’re doing is what we’re ordered to do and maybe more.”
Wright said he and his coaches have brainstormed on ideas to be safer. For instance, at Panther practices he saves the heavy contact drills for the end of practice.
“I don’t know if that will help or not but there’s not a lot of information out there,” Wright said.
Wright said the team motto is “together best” and that involves some personal responsibility by his players.
“It’s just one piece of adversity you’re going to face in life,” Wright said. “They’re responding well. It would have taken an act of God to keep me off the field at their age and they’re seeming to prove the same things to me.”
Giger, who also coaches mid to long distance running for the Lady Bluejays’ track and field team, said it was difficult telling her athletes, who were coming off back to back state championships last year, their season was over after two weeks of practice. She had three seniors on the team.
“That was super hard,” Giger said. “They didn’t even get a shot.”
Giger said last month a workout got canceled because of rain but her senior players went to the field anyway just to sit in the dugout.
“They just want to play,” Giger said. “They want to have some level of normalcy back in their lives; they want to go to school. They really want to be a part of it and I hope we have a season.”