I’m an ATX native & was fortunate to end my lengthy career in the sports media in my hometown at KVUE in 2019.
This story resonated with me due to my roots & the possibility of not experiencing a football season due to the Coronavirus.
Check out my podcast: Stories Inside the Man Cave
Follow me on Twitter: @ShawnC_ATX
Football is a constant in our society, especially here in the heart of Texas. Its part of our fabric and our DNA as Texans. We take it for granted and have faith that each football season will kick off in late August.
Just nine short months ago in February, the anticipation for the 2020 season was through the ceiling for Texas Longhorns fans.
Meanwhile, on the high school scene, the Austin High School Maroons had reason to be excited with their senior to be quarterback, UT commit, Charles Wright leading the way.
Westlake High School was set to make a run to defend their 6A, division II state title. The folks in Northwest Hills felt like they could make a serious run at a playoff spot after the University Interscholastic League dropped the Trojans program from 6A, division II to 5A, division I.
And, McCallum High School was anxious to begin training to contend for another playoff appearance.
Little did we know, a sport and its season so many live for and are passionate about would be in jeopardy.
“We have a new found love for the game of football,” said Westlake Head Football Coach, Todd Dodge.
A new perspective gained due to a global pandemic which nearly shut down football on all levels.
The uncertainty hit the Austin area and the high school football programs and the University of Texas football program in mid-March.
“I remember waking up the next day not having school and thinking what does it mean for football because I was in baseball season,” said McCallum High School senior defensive back, Jake Allison. “And we knew our season (baseball) was postponed and it go cancelled.”
Allison eluded to the day our world truly began to change, March 16th. That was the day Austin Independent School District announced classes were cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
“I honestly never thought we would shut down sports at the beginning,” said Austin High School head football coach, Mike Rosenthal.
The next domino to fall locally was when the University of Texas postponed spring football practices and eventually cancelled spring camp altogether.
We’ve just been trying to control what we can control, and keep our emotions directed at that,” said Texas Longhorns senior quarterback, Sam Ehlinger.
But, there wasn’t much the Longhorns or any high school football player could control. Life as we knew it and football was at the mercy of a virus.
“Initially they (the McCallum Knights) were all in shock,” said McCallum Head Football Coach, Tom Gammerdinger.
That was the concern, this is when doubt began to set in. Questions like, is the season in jeopardy.
“I met with Coach Mo (Coach Mo’s Elite Fitness) over spring break and we both said this may be here for a while, said Anderson High School Head Football Coach, Daniel Hunter. “We developed a plan of how to do strength and conditioning and how to do our character development along with other staff members.”
Those plans included virtual workouts on social media platforms.
“The summer time was really good. We had over 300 athletes in strength and conditioning. It’s really interesting starting in June, we started summer conditioning. And, we went for 18 workouts. Not one hiccup with Covid, not anything,” said Westlake High School Head Coach, Todd Dodge. “Then Travis Country took our kids away from us. Then on July 14th for a month. During that month we had 6 positive cases on our team.”
New plans and protocols were implemented what seemed like daily.
“We came back in June and everyone clears us,” said Austin High School head football coach, Mike Rosenthal. The Maroons gathered for six days before being shut down again due to the Austin Public Heath Covid stage at level 4.
According to the recommendation set by Austin Public Health’s, Dr. Mark Escott, team activities could begin at stage 3. For actual games, stage 2.
“Kids are creatures of habit and they need the structure and they need to be around coaches and family and teammates and friends. Kids were really struggling with that,” said Rosenthal.
Between at-home workouts and zoom meetings it was a daily dosage of acclimating to change and being mindful of whom to interact with and eliminating personal habits.
“Everything in our lives has had to change a little bit. Especially for me,” said Ehlinger. “As much as I lick my fingers, I’ve had to quit that and it’s been tough for me because it is a habit. I think that there’s a lot of little different things like that that I’m conscious of now that I wasn’t in December.”
Fast forward to late July. The uncertainty of an actual college football season trickled when the Big 12 Conference cancelled the annual football media days in Arlington, TX.
That was followed by two of the Power 5 conferences, the SEC and the PAC 12, cancelling fall sports including football on August 11th.
Meanwhile, the Texas Longhorns were determined to prepare for a season, beginning fall camp on August 7th.
“That was really important for our guys to have a sense of normalcy,” said Texas Longhorns head coach, Tom Herman. “Now, it doesn’t feel normal having to pull your mask up or wearing a shield on the bottom of your face mask or standing six feet away from guys, but I think for the most part our guys are pretty used to that new normal.”
The new norm afforded all involved in the Austin football community to receive an infusion of positive news. Austin Public Health lowered the Covid stage to 3 eventually leading to plans to kickoff the season.
“We’ve had our season taken away from us three times and we’re fortunate to get back on track. But, you have to enjoy each day,” said Rosenthal.
A new appreciation gained for the game they’re all passionate about. Regardless of limited attendance at games, 10% of stadium capacity at A.I.S.D. games, 20% stadium capacity at Westlake High School, and 25% of stadium capacity at the University of Texas games.
“I think our guys have handled everything with a ton of maturity,” said Herman. “We just have gratitude to the powers that be for getting us to this place where we can actually jog out onto the field.”
Needless to say, regardless of how many games are actually played, this experience the past nine months has been a valuable lesson learned which can be applied in life.
“I think this has been a wake up call for these guys. It can be taken away at any moment,” said Gammerdinger.
“The best way I cam sum it up is, if we finished the year 1-0 and even 0-1, it was a great season,” said Hunter.
A significant victory was experienced by simply kicking off the season during a global pandemic.