Fond du Lac football coach Steven Jorgensen is the son of longtime Wisconsin high school coach Steve Jorgensen, who won state championships at Oshkosh North and Kimberly.

He’s been a part of fall football every year since he was a water boy and played for Steve.

The decision by the Fond du Lac School Board to move football to the spring in 2020 was very disappointing for Jorgensen, who said his team had been following county health department guidelines to limit spread of the coronavirus.

“I drive around town, everyone is living their lives, restaurants are full, parks are full. Full of kids,” he said. “And that’s great. People have got to get back with their lives in a safe, responsible way, but it seems like we’re so quick to shut down activities for our future, for our youth, for these kids that are working hard, and that’s very disheartening to me.”

He added that student-athletes have said they see inconsistencies in the decision-making.

After the county health department reported one of the state’s highest case numbers per 100,000 residents Monday, the school board moved all of Fond du Lac’s fall sports to the spring.

“The kids are confused,” Jorgensen said. “They’re out in the community, they’re working jobs … they’ve asked me, ‘Coach, if we can’t go golf out in the outdoors with a few other people, how are we allowed to come back to school with 1,000 people in the building?’”

Jorgensen acknowledged the difficulty of making decisions during a pandemic but feels that the high school sports community and athletes are getting the short end of the reopening stick.

“Sports have been played here all summer,” Jorgensen said. “I’m getting emails for camps next week for football, football combines. All club sports are going on. AAU is going on …

“I think that a lot of things, sadly, have gotten in the way. I think liability, I think fear gets in the way of those decisions sometimes. And I’m not blaming anybody who made those decisions. There’s very tough decisions to be made right now … there’s a lot of things that just don’t make sense.”

Jorgensen told his players that he loves them, realizes that the situation is unfortunate and will support the football program over the next half a year until practice begins.

Fond du Lac will have to figure out how to overcome the obstacle of beginning football in March.

A big concern for Jorgensen is how Fond du Lac’s Fruth Field will hold up in March considering the chance of snow in late winter and early spring. The field has had flooding issues, and Jorgensen is worried about how the “inadequate” facilities will impact the team’s practice schedule.

Oshkosh West interim football coach Duane Hartkopf said it will be different to lose layers of clothing, not add them, as the football season progresses next spring. He anticipated the season might be postponed but still felt the sting.

“In a sense we’re relieved getting an answer but obviously disappointed because it’s the fall, and football is made for the fall,” Hartkopf said.

Hartkopf said West will likely use the remaining of its contact days in late October to keep continuity with the players and maybe add new wrinkles on offense and defense.

Hartkopf will call the offensive plays and has brought on Oshkosh West graduate Andrew Dittburner as defensive coordinator. Dittburner was a former coach at Green Bay East and Oshkosh West’s freshman coach in 2019.

The first football game of the alternative fall season will be the week of March 22, nearly 11 months after Hartkopf accepted the job as interim coach. The extra time will give him and the staff more time to study opponents and familiarize themselves with the new systems.

Four-year Oshkosh North girls volleyball assistant Stephanie Korell is stepping in as interim coach as Jamie Stille takes a one-year leave of absence for the birth of her first child.

Korell said her reaction to fall sports moving to the spring was nothing out of the ordinary in 2020 because the team can’t control what happens. She told athletes to try to stay positive and that how they react to tough decisions will be key moving forward.

The Fond du Lac girls golf team played in two varsity matches Monday — hours before the school board moved its season to the spring.

Coach Duane Woeshnick said it was important for his young team to get experience as it only has two seniors and 15 underclassmen. Fond du Lac defeated Kaukauna 196-207 and lost to Hortonville 188-196.

“It was great for us to do that on Monday and just to get out there and play. … Ten of them played in their first high school match, so we were able to get the nerves out, and I think that’ll help us come this spring because now they won’t be as nervous,” Woeshnick said.

Contact Jerell Rushin at 920-279-4974 or jrushin@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jerellrushin_.