The high school football regular season is still three months away, but that doesn’t mean its status during the coronavirus pandemic isn’t regularly on the minds of coaches and players.
“That’s the million dollar question,” New Berlin Eisenhower head coach Matt Kern said. “My optimism level about playing this season depends on what day you ask me. The news changes so much day-to-day.”
While new reports on COVID-19 are released on a constant basis, the status of the prep football season remains untouched.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Brookfield Central head coach Joel Nellis said. “There’s not a ton of communication; (the WIAA) is just waiting. There’s no timeline yet and they’re working on it.”
The waiting game is well under way.
“I think we’re just listening to government officials and what the WIAA tells us,” Muskego head coach Ken Krause said. “They’re the people that are going to make these decisions in the end. It seems like things change in our country daily, hourly, so as much as you’d like to have an idea of what it will look like for us in August, you really can’t.”
School and sports
One of the first talking points surrounding the potential return of football is whether there will be in-person classes of some sort in the fall.
That separate conversation is a large one for the state to handle, but its implications on high school sports are fairly simple; if schools remain entirely virtual for the fall, you won’t see school-sponsored athletics.
“As for where we’ll be in the fall, I don’t really know who knows,” Nellis said.
The relationship between school taking place and sports being played goes both ways.
“It’s tough to envision a world in which there’s school but not sports, just like if there’s no school then there’s no sports,” Kern said. “If you’re going to have setups where we’re not going to allow more than 10 kids in a classroom or not have full lunch rooms, then it’s hard to envision 75 kids on a practice football field.”
Kern also thinks a lack of Wisconsin Badgers or Green Bay Packers football would spell trouble at his level.
“I have a hard time envisioning a world in which we’re playing high school football if college and the NFL aren’t going on,” Kern said.
Other sports happening statewide
If there are no fall sports, or only a select few, some will point to the fact that non-school sponsored youth sports will have been going on since May, when Gov. Tony Evers’ extended safer-at-home order was struck down.
“One thing I’ve noticed this last week is things starting to open up, youth baseball leagues and other sports starting up in late May or early June all around the state,” Krause said. “That’s where it gets interesting. Government officials and elected people have to make those decisions about the fall, but you go outside and you see youth sports practicing outside all over the place.”
It will come as no surprise that coaches and players are plenty vocal about wanting to have a season if there is any way to do so in a safe manner.
“The one thing I’d say is that if there’s any way to be able to let the kids play, that’s something that my staff and I know other coaches would advocate for,” Nellis said. “Whether that’s just having my team scrimmage itself and not play other schools, or letting schools from areas that don’t have much of a concentration of cases play.”
Said Krause: “I think a big concern is kids’ mental health. I think that the more that kids can be involved in activities in a safe manner, it’s great for our state and our country. But first you’ve got to figure out what’s safe and manageable, and I know the WIAA is having those discussions now.”
Plenty of questions at hand
The National Federation of State High School Association released a 14-page document last week on its guidelines for opening up high school athletics and activities.
It outlines a plan with three phases for reopening, breaks sports down into being either low-, medium- or high-risk and also presents sets of questions for states to consider. Football is among the high-risk sports due to its natural level of contact.
The NFHS is a national organization, which makes its guidelines only recommendations for state governing bodies to consider when determining what fall sports will look like.
The NFHS brings up additional points for consideration. Some topics include:
- Whether the state will hold a season if schools are only closed in “hotspot” areas.
- Whether only “lower-risk” sports seasons be conducted.
- Benefits and potential drawbacks of using cloth face masks during physical activity.
- Testing protocols and what to do in the instance of an athlete testing positive for COVID-19.
- Preparing for periodic school closures and potential school isolations for short periods in the fall and winter due to possible recurrent outbreaks.
- Travel across city and county lines.
Coaches also brought up questions they had regarding possible hurdles that would have to be cleared, including:
- What, if at all, will contact tracing look like?
- Will full-team drills, critical for football practice, be allowed?
- What if a team is more than the NFHS’ recommendation of 50 people?
The questions are plentiful and the answers are not so obvious as the WIAA determines what its course of action will be for fall sports.
"I've heard a whole bunch of different possibilities, but they're all nothing more than just discussion and brainstorming," Kern said. "The WIAA is probably hunkered down trying to figure this out with various scenarios in play. I don't envy their position at all."
Contact Curt Hogg at chogg@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @CyrtHogg.
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Will there be a high school football season this fall? Area coaches ponder the possibility, options and questions. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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