Little by little, by hook or by crook, the high school sports season has arrived in the Pensacola area for fall 2020. 

While Hurricane Sally delayed football a week, volleyball still managed to kick off its season in Santa Rosa County as scheduled two Fridays ago. Other minor sports like golf and cross country managed competition throughout last week. 

The coming weeks will reveal whether pandemic safety measures are built to last an entire fall season, but for now a variety of methods have proven effective for getting high school coaches and programs into competition this fall. 

What will remain for programs and what question marks have emerged as teams return to the season? Lastly, what can other sports and fitness organizations take away the return of high school sports?

What Worked

Small Group Sessions

Individualized Training 

It was the strategy most commonly heard in preseason interviews, particularly for offseason conditioning and drill work.

Dividing athletes into small groups for conditioning and small practice allowed coaches to better isolate any issues with COVID-19 without having to suspend operations overall. 

More: PNJ 2020 Super Seniors: Meet the best 15 senior football players in ECSD and SRCSD

More: PNJ Volleyball Super Seniors 2020: Preseason honorees from Escambia, Santa Rosa County

Some programs with more veteran programs left training up to individuals entirely, holding them accountable to make progress on their own ahead of the season. 

It’s more difficult to implement during the team-building practices ahead of actual competition, but there are still takeaways for winter sports teams beginning conditioning as well as fitness groups unaffiliated to school activities. 

“We got a lot accomplished just in strength and conditioning [with small groups] so when we were able to add in the ball, I feel we’re as ready as we can be,” Pensacola High School volleyball coach Kerry Clarke said. “…It’s more about finding a rhythm right now.”

On football game day, COVID-19 alterations included reducing the number of captains at the pre-game coin toss with referees from three to one while also eliminating the post-game handshake between teams. 

Temperature Checks

Disinfecting Common Objects/Spaces

Non-contact fever testing and regular cleaning of points of common contact were also among the top practices among interviewed programs. 

The actual efficacy of the infrared temperature takers is widely debated. The devices detect high temperatures on the skin, whether that’s due to a coronavirus fever or sitting too long in a car under the sun. Asymptomatic and non-fever COVID-19 cases also slip under the radar.

In some ways, it could be considered “hygiene theater,” but that isn’t always without merit in a program for regular check-ins with student health. 

“We’re just monitoring symptoms every day and checking temperatures every day,” Gulf Breeze volleyball coach Jasmine King said. “They’re staying with specific people and every so often at every practice we wipe down the balls and sanitize things. We’re just having to be extra careful and it’s definitely been a change in the norm.”

What Remains 

Public Signage

Digital Ticketing

Staff Protections 

There was no shortage of mask signage as well as a few recommendations for occupancy limitations on indoor shared spaces like bathrooms at high school stadiums last week. 

High school athletic programs are implementing non-contact digital ticketing, allowing event attendees to enter the stadium without stopping for an exchange at the gate. Using the mobile app GoFan, guests entered the stadium through a wide gate and showed a ticket on their phone screen to masked gate workers. 

Overall, gameday personnel and school administrators at home games covered by Pensacola News Journal employees generally wore masks and other face-coverings while practicing social distancing. 

At Escambia, sections of the stadium bleachers were roped off to prevent seating while field access was limited for media photographers. 

Question Marks 

Game Day

Masks and Social Distancing

Seating Charts 

Stadiums were operating at approximately 30 percent capacity in Week 1, though stands and student sections did not look too dissimilar from years gone by. 

While everyone needed masks to get inside the stadium, and were encouraged to use them by schools, mask-wearers were often a minority among the general public inside the stadium while students congregated in large groups throughout the night. 

Time will tell whether these game day environments produce problems for high school sports communities, but it will remain a hovering question mark, particularly as some programs have reported the anxiety of having student-athletes tied to mandatory proximity seating charts in classes. 

The Florida Department of Health reported 1,882 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional resident deaths Sunday. The reported death toll for Florida residents since the pandemic began is now at 14,032. There are now 700,564 confirmed cases in the state.

On Sunday, Escambia County reached a total 5,314 cases and a positivity rate of about 13%.

Eric J. Wallace can be reached at ejwallace@pnj.com or 850-525-5087.