After a spring of being away from sports and their friends, high school students are beginning to return to the world of athletics.
Guidelines were set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Activities Association that allowed high school athletics to resume practice and competition for some sports.
While Lake Hamilton and Lakeside utilized the June 1 return date for their football conditioning and weight training, Fountain Lake, Hot Springs and Mountain Pine were among the schools that waited until June 2 to make their return to the field.
"We went through a big how-to day -- went over a lot of procedures," Hot Springs head coach Darrell Burnett said. "... A lot of these kids haven't actually been as active as they much as they should, and some of them have been cooped up in the house which is rightfully so. So we started from the basics. Taught em the points of lifting such as squat, simple techniques. ... Kept the percentages low -- 30% to get them acclimated to doing it the right way. Guess you could say high volume, simple reps. We went over the simple things."
"It went good," Mountain Pine head coach Sam Counce noted. "We weren't able to do a lot because we only have one hour, by the time everybody checked in, and we checked temperatures, and we went over the CDC guidelines. ... I was pleasantly surprised. We had 32 (kids), (from grades) seven through 12. You could tell a lot of them had been inside all spring and first part of summer. I feel like through this week, we have have them for an hour each time, that I think our attendance will get better. Overall, I was happy, but like I said, these kids haven't done a lot, and you could tell. They were huffing and puffing pretty good."
Fountain Lake head coach Kenny Shelton was pleased with the turnout on Tuesday.
"High school-wise, I had 28 kids today," Shelton said. "It was a good turnout for the first day. I'm expecting, on the roster, I've got right at, I believe, 39 players. Kind of see how it goes, see if I've got any that show up that missed and give these kids a couple of days to get acclimated and start making some phone calls for any of the kids that haven't shown by the end of the week. Feel pretty confident that we can field anywhere from 35 to 40 kids this year, so that's not exactly where we want to be, but that's by far vast improvement from last year, for sure."
With the number of precautions being taken, the coaches explained the process of how they are conducting workouts.
"We didn't bring our whole team in," Burnett said. "We brought in 10 kids at a time and anybody (that) knows the size of our indoor, the size of our weight room, the size of our facilities -- we had enough space. Didn't have to worry about kids being too close, didn't have to worry about coaches being too close. We weren't just doing this for the sake of the kids or the sake of the coaches but also the parents, so the parents could have a restful mind knowing that we're not saying 'Oh, we're going to load up 50 or 60 kids at one time and then rush it to win a football game and not really care about your kids' health.' We're trying to do the right thing."
"We're meeting them at the gate," Counce explained. "We don't let them inside the fieldhouse. We stretched and keep them in small groups to go inside. The group that goes inside is small and then the ones outside -- we've got coaches that kind of keep them in groups of 10 and go like that. Try to keep them distanced. When we stretch, we take up the whole parking lot. It's strange, but we've gotta keep those kids cognizant of social distancing. We don't want to be the one that has the outbreak. We're very careful about what we're doing."
As many players have not maintained a precise schedule of training and workouts the past two months, the coaching staffs will have to help the athletes fall back into a routine.
"The kids are gonna do what you allow them to do and what you expect from them," Burnett said. "They pushed themselves. You could tell the ones that sat on the couch playing PS4 and everything. Let's be honest, all these kids got this free time, and you want to be safe, that's what you do. They push through and that's what you want to see. You want to see 'Alright, who's gonna quit? Who's gonna push through? Who's gonna be a leader?' Things that go unnoticed is what's going to help you win ball games."
"The AAA put it out there that we've got to get the kids acclimated to the weather so the first couple of days we can only go for an hour," Shelton noted. "We're in the weight room for about 35 minutes. We give them a little five-minute break, and then we go outside to the football field, and we do some light conditioning for about 20 minutes. That hour's up pretty quick. We're tracking every kid as far as their workouts for the acclimation process. ... The kids who come the first two days -- day three, we have those kids for an hour and a half, so we'll be able to do our normal hour lifting and conditioning and then quarterbacks and receivers will throw and catch, run some routes. The linemen will be able to do some footwork and some drills. ... We can't use any of the dummies or the pads. Do some drill work and keep that social distancing."
Counce said the Red Devils are focusing on agility, sprint work and weightlifting.
"We're putting them in groups, and we're doing a rotation like that that just let's them do a little bit of everything," he said. "Strength and footwork's big, you know. In my mind, we've got to have good feet to block and tackle and things like that, plus some conditioning to get in shape."
Shelton explained some of the challenges the players are facing with the current guidelines.
"The hardest issue for me is trying to get the kids to remain socially distant," he said. "They want to hang out. A lot of these kids haven't seen each other in quite some time, and this is all brand new. They had a hard time. If I said it once, I probably said it 200 times to keep your social distancing, so that'll get a little easier as they get used to it.
"(The kids) have to have their face mask and as soon as they get done in the weight room lifting their set, they have to put the mask back on to spot," he added. "Outside, when we're doing our (agility workouts) and conditioning, they get to take it off, but when I give them a break they've got to put it back on. It's hard, but it's the new norm. Hopefully, that's what everybody's doing throughout the state."
Even with the safety measures that are implemented, the response to restoring practice has been positive.
"There's a handful of kids that I'm sure have been hanging out but most of the kids were happy to see their buddies -- starved for that social interaction, you know?" Shelton said. "They've been gone for so long. They did a really good job of staying focused and doing what we asked them to do. Doing it safely. Just quite a unique situation with all this stuff that's going on. Even through all of that, I think they're just as happy as we were to get back to work and get back to, hopefully, a good football."
Sports on 06/04/2020