A prominent North Texas high school football coach claims sporting events are safe and is calling out “knucklehead” parents for allowing large parties where the coronavirus can spread.
“I mean the ones who are the knuckleheads having these big gigantic parties,” said Aledo High School head football coach Tim Buchanan. “If they would just stop doing things like that, it would sure help us."
Buchanan, 60, a diabetic who takes insulin, considers himself high-risk.
He said preventing the spread of the virus among students is proving to be as challenging as a big playoff game.
"I'll be honest, the pandemic, all this, has been a lot more than we thought it was going to be as far as manage it all,” he said.
Five players from the freshmen squad to varsity team have tested positive for the virus.
In just the last few days, 30 varsity players have been in quarantine.
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More than 200 students at Aledo High School also are in quarantine, he said.
One game didn't happen after the opposing team had to cancel, he said.
But Buchanan doesn’t believe high school sporting events are the problem.
He responded to a recommendation Tuesday by Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley that high schools should suspend sporting events.
"When I first heard that today, I thought there's another knucklehead,” Buchanan said.
He said the virus seemed more under control not long ago.
"And the only thing different is we started having Homecoming parties, we started having Halloween parties, we started having Saturday night watch-football-game parties, and that's where everything is getting traced back to,” he said. “So if we could quit doing the silly stuff."
Buchanan said his game plan is to warn his players about the risks, plead with them to wear masks, and hold on until vaccines are widely available and the virus is gone.
"I'm an old biology teacher,” he said. “I think we're going to get past this and everything is going to get back to normal."
