A former coach once described the excitement at the start of a high school football season: “It makes the hair on my arms stand up.”
I’m sure I will feel that way March 12 when the 2020-2021 season kicks off.
It will obviously be different. For one thing, it will start March 12. To steal from a quote from Casa Grande football coach John Antonio, “How normal is that?”
There will be few, if any, fans in the stands, no crowds milling around the concession stand, no former players lining the sidelines, no proud moms and grandparents willingly shivering in the bleachers, no new band learning to squeak together and no groups of barely teens roaming the track hoping to see and be seen by groups of the opposite gender.
But it will still be football. Players will be amped into perpetual motion; coaches will pretend calm, while their stomachs moan, groan and spin. It will be football and it will be real.
I’m delighted for athletes in all sports. They have suffered and the majority have sacrificed and helped make the resumption of sports possible by following the rules and helping slow the pandemic. But “slow” is the key word. The pandemic is not over and there are signs that COVID-19 is fighting back, mutating into even more virulent forms.
Vaccinations have given us an All-Star in our lineup, but it takes a team to win a championship and we need to continue to be a team to keep momentum on our side. We can’t let our guard down. We must continue wearing masks, avoiding unnecessary risks and listening to the people who know more than we do.
Football is back, and so are many, but not all, other sports, but if we aren’t smart and cautious, they can go away much quicker than they returned.
We are all tired of the rules, restrictions and the seemingly endless protocols. I agree that some seem unnecessary and arbitrary, but I also know that COVID-19 is real and deadly.
To be honest, I doubt that I am a “necessary” worker, but I am going to take advantage of that status to be on the sideline March 12 when the hair on my arms stands up and I welcome back high school football. I will also be wearing a mask and not shaking hands or mingling with long-missed coaching and playing friends.
I want to see the kids continue playing.
(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)