Executive director Robin Hines said the GHSA is better prepared this year to move ahead with the opening of high school football season in the midst of a coronavirus surge that has led several teams to cancel their openers.
It’s a similar stance the GHSA and school systems took last fall when it appeared that getting to opening week and through a full season seemed like a long shot.
The sport made it to the finish line then, with champions crowned in all classifications and the playoffs generating $1.3 million in revenue, according to the GHSA’s annual expense report.
Still, the new delta variant remains a tangible threat to the football season and public safety.
On Aug. 1, Douglas County offensive lineman Tyler Fairley, 17, a two-year starter, died from COVID-19 complications. A surge in cases has overwhelmed hospitals across Georgia. School systems are shutting down and teams are postponing games because of the surge. Those that can’t play will face forfeit/losses unless games can be rescheduled. In 2021, the GHSA won’t exempt teams from forfeit rules if they are sidelined by COVID-19.
Hines said the experience gained last season helped prepare the GHSA and school systems on how to handle the pandemic.
“We learned a lot last year,” Hines said. “We were kind of writing the manual as we went along. So we feel more comfortable where we are now.”
Hines said he meets weekly with the NFHS-governed Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, and there was “a consensus that we’re in good shape moving forward,” adding that the GHSA is “focused on providing great opportunities for our student-athletes this year.”
The GHSA will not track positive cases this year and will leave it to each school district to manage how it proceeds through the pandemic, with the exception being the state playoffs, where schools will be required to lift any attendance restrictions.
Douglas County’s season will move forward as planned, Tigers coach Johnny White said, despite his program suffering the worst-case scenario of the pandemic. To him, not having a football season could create more problems than having one.
“What are these kids going to do?” White said. “If they’re not supervised, where are they going to be? It’s a functionality thing to know where they are and keep in contact with them. A lot of these kids need football to stay motivated — I know my best grades were during football season, because someone was always going to be on me.”
White said he will draw from a past tragedy to help his team cope with Fairley’s death.
“I left Creekside the year before DeAntre Turman passed in 2013,” he said. “I had just left, but those were still my kids. I was there 11 years. I watched the way the players put their personal aspirations and desires aside and played for him, and they ended up winning a state championship.”
New Hampstead coach Kyle Hockman said he has seen less hesitancy this year from parents to let their sons compete.
“Last year, we probably had 10 kids who wanted to play, but their parents wouldn’t let them,” Hockman said. “This year we haven’t had that yet, and that was something we saw as a positive.”
In Gainesville, Riverside Military is gearing up for football after sitting out the entire 2020 season. Riverside was the first GHSA school to cancel in May, marking the first season since 1907 that the Eagles didn’t play.
Riverside coach Nicholas Garrett, who ran the school’s fall intramural sports program last fall instead of coaching, said there’s a strong desire to see Eagles football played this year.
“The school, the community, the parents, the cadets — they’re all absolutely excited for football,” said Garrett. “We’ve received nothing but overwhelming support. We’re getting the help we need. The parents are more involved, and we’re putting our best foot forward.”
Hockman said teams in his region (3-4A) coordinated on plans to help with rescheduling, if needed. Each team has a bye at the start and at the end of league play.
“We’re better prepared to move our schedules around, if need be,” Hockman said.
In Region 1-2A, Early County can only hope their season goes off without a hitch. The program was forced to shut down for two weeks last season because of contact-tracing concerns after competing against a team with an infected player. The result was an eight-game regular season, which if played this year, would have been a 10-game season with two forfeit losses.
Bobcats coach Joel Harvin is worried the Bobcats may again face consequences of being held to more stringent protocol than region opponents.
“Here (at Early County), any kid who was within X-amount of feet of someone who tests positive has to quarantine 10 days,” Harvin said. “If you add the GHSA’s five-day mandate for re-acclimation, we’re talking three weeks. (With other region opponents) on the east side, it’s different. If a kid there doesn’t have symptoms, they don’t have to quarantine.”
When asked if the GHSA’s forfeit policy is subject to change, Hines said everything is.
“Right now, the recommendations we got are to run things as normal and by-the-book as the past, but recommendations are fluid and subject to change because safety is our first priority,” he said.
The season opens Wednesday when the Corky Kell Classic kicks off at West Forsyth, with Cherokee playing Mays at 5:30 p.m., and West Forsyth playing Caver-Atlanta at 8:30 p.m. A number of seven openers have been postponed: Fitzgerald-Cairo, Clarke Central-Cedar Shoals, Burke County-Benedictine, Sumter County-Westover, Randolph Clay-Dougherty and Crisp County-Tift County.
A game between Richmond Academy and Hancock Central also has been taken off the books, although no reason has been given.
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