On coronavirus, only a higher power can prevent Friday night lights this fall
Two events will prevent Texas high school football from starting on time:
1. The death of a high school kid from the coronavirus.
2. Teachers and administrators who refuse to go back to their normal schedule out of fear of the coronavirus.
“The best thing we can have happen for football, is for all of these dang kids to get it this summer,” Aledo high school football coach Tim Buchanan said Monday morning. “Because they are going to get it. When do you want them to get it? If they are going to get it, get it right now.”
He is not alone in this sentiment.
Dr. Anthony Fauci can say he does not see football being played in the fall of 2020, but he’s not from ‘round these parts. Fauci is worse than a Yankee; he is New York Yankee.
While he understands the complexities, and potential, dangers of the virus he does not understand the importance of football to Texans.
Talk of social distancing and “Phase 2” may be plausible, or preposterous, but as evidenced by what I saw on Monday morning at Aledo High, only God will stop kickoff in Texas.
The numbers may continue to spike, and the hospital beds will fill up, and nothing is going to stop the lights from being turned on come Friday nights in the fall.
While Arlington Martin, Burleson, West Orange Stark and others, closed summer practices because of players testing positive for COVID-19, the Aledo Bearcats football team proceed with limited visual exception.
Buchanan said no player has tested positive, and watching his varsity team go through drills and practice on Monday morning at Aledo High School, it looked like a typical summer football workout.
In Buchanan’s mind, the Bearcats will begin defense of their 2019 state title at Weatherford on Aug. 28, as is on the schedule.
In his mind the sign that the 2020 football schedule will be affected is if the annual Texas High School Coaches Association Convention Coaching School, scheduled for July 19-21 in San Antonio, is delayed or canceled.
“If they shut us down and say we are not going to coaching school, that’s the one. Right now we are going,” Buchanan said. “If you go to coaching school, 30 percent would fit in the ‘at-risk.’ Those are just the coaches.
“Now, when you talk about teachers at schools? That number is even higher. If the teachers rebel — and the teachers here want to go back to work — but if the teachers rebel, that could stop things.”
Like every other team that practices, Aledo tries to do what it can to accommodate health safety and preventative measures.
They take temperatures. There is no tackling. They clean equipment. They only use one football per a certain group of guys.
And then, after all of that, teenage kids behave like teenage kids. They stand close to each other. Some kids spit. They sweat. They huddle to talk.
There is no “Phase 1” or “Phase 2” to playing football. Or sports in general.
You’re either playing, or you’re not.
“I am worried about the kids. We all are,” Buchanan said.
Who isn’t worried? Naturally, it’s the kids.
“We are a team and we like to be together and staying close. It’s hard to social distance with us,” Aledo senior middle linebacker Sam Forman said. “I know there is a chance of us not playing. I try not to think about that.
“I never thought that it would last this long,” the player continued. “I thought it was a little sickness and we’d get over it. But it’s still going strong, and it’s coming back. If someone gets it, we have to shut down practice.”
Aledo proceeds optimistically. Cautiously. Realistically.
Fall practice is scheduled to start on Aug. 3.
The Governor of Texas has made reopening his priority. The numbers rise. Hospital beds fill up.
So the crowds may be less, or non-existent. The bands may spread out a bit further. The cheerleaders won’t toss each other 50 miles into the sky.
Like it or not, Friday night kickoff in Texas is on schedule.
