They are the sights and sounds of fall Friday nights in North Texas, but now the upcoming high school football season may be at risk due to COVID-19. The pandemic already led to the cancellation of spring sports and it may not stop there.
“Without high school and without sports, I don’t see that we’re making our society better,” said Allen high school football coach Terry Gambill. “Now, it’s got to be safe and that’s the number one thing everyone is looking at and trying to figure out.”
That is one of the reasons NBC 5 and the Dallas Morning News teamed up to host a virtual high school football town hall meeting with five coaches from the North Texas area, to discuss a number of challenges coaches will face going into the 2020 season – if it happens – after not having spring practices and likely after summer workouts are reduced.
“I think the term that we’ve best used so far is making sure we don’t burn the steak,” said Arlington Martin high school football coach Bob Wager. “Think about throwing that steak on the grill. If we go full speed when we reenter into fall organized workouts, we’re going to put some kids at risk.”
Trying to keep kids away from risk in the fall, while also just trying to keep tabs on what they’re doing while doing schoolwork from home this spring.
“They’re out on their own, so we have to use every social media platform that we have to maintain contact with them and make sure they’re doing some semblance of a workout,” said Cedar Hill high school coach Carlos Lynn.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
Hoping they are working in preparation for a season that is still uncertain, while remaining optimistic that fall Friday nights and the sights and sounds of Texas high school football will be back in 2020.
“I feel like a lot of the question about whether or not we are going to be playing in the fall is going to be are we going to have school?” said Denton Guyer football coach Rodney Webb. “I’m optimistic we’re going to. I think we need it as a society.”
