It appears our football season is nearly back to normal...and your's ?

[Ralph Damren]

Our exhibition weekend begins on this Friday and it seems back to normal. No sideline expansion or handshake or number of captain restrictions by state mandate. Schools are allowed add any limitations that they wish for their own team BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE REAL FOOTBALL once again.

How about your state  ??

[HLinNC]

Our state athletic association spent the last month and a half locked in a battle with the state Senate over money and other issues related to the administration of HS sports.  They're sitting quietly in the corner right now after getting scolded.

Covid restrictions are being managed now by each county health dept so there is some disparity between areas on what kind of guidelines are being followed as we start school.  Week 1 was last week and we had several schools in the area have to cancel games or move games due to Covid or flooding from TS Fred.

What last year seems to have taught coaches and AD's is to be able to stop on a dime and come up with Plan B.  One 1A school two counties over was scheduled to play one of the 3A schools outside of Asheville Friday night.  The 3A team got quarantined so the game was cancelled.  Meanwhile an Asheville private school postponed a Friday game til Saturday due to field conditions.  On Saturday, the game got cancelled because the visiting team, a mega-church school out of Charlotte, had some Covid problems.  The 1A school and private school spoke on Sunday and agreed to play a season opener last night.  Several schools in WNC had games cancelled earlier in the week and tracked down other schools in the same boat and came to agreements to get a game played Friday night.

[hef333]

Eastern PA...Lancaster Lebanon League....have not officially heard whether we will have facilities for Friday opening night....so we are planning to arrive dressed, lawn chairs for pre game and bringing our own drinks, as we did last season.  Hoping that changes and we can back to a more normal season....have not even heard if there will or will not be fans at games...

[stevegarbs]

In suburban Chicago we look to be returning to normal. Was holding my breath until this morning when I finally received game day details from the host AD. No on-field restrictions with respect to COVID, but we are being asked to wear masks when we enter the school for locker room access.

[ncwingman]

Week 1 for me was "back to normal" with a very awkward overhanging cloud. There were two (I think) schools in my region that postponed/canceled games due to Covid issues, but most everybody else got Week 1 in the books.

My particular game was in a "red" county with no mask mandates and a general attitude of "You can tell me what to do!" ... and yet, every person we met wasn't particularly confident that Week 2 was going to happen on schedule. This week was going to be their season and they were going to live it up and pretend everything was fine.

11 weeks in the season. We'll see how many I get to work.

[dammitbobby]

Texas is, well, Texas, in every sense.

We're kicking off JV and some Varsity games tomorrow, some schools have temporarily shutdown because COVID is so bad in some areas (Iraan, for example), nobody wants to be told to wear masks, some schools says yes you will, most say nope, so it's a mixed bag really.  I'm not aware of any schools in my area that are mandating special conditions or requirements for officials outside of what we are already used to (don't stand too close to me, don't you dare blow out birthday candles in my direction, etc.)

[ilyazhito]

VHSL has rolled back all the mitigation measures they used last season. The only difference I have seen is that the players have individual water bottles. It's football as usual in the Commonwealth of Virginia, or at least in the northern part thereof.

[Ralph Damren]

Our state association has added a cravat to teammates of a Corona-positive player. IF a player has been vaccinated ,he can keep on playing; IF not, he has to quarantine for 10 days. I'm told that many high school athletes can be seen in vaccination lines.

[Ralph Damren]

Our state association has added a cravat to teammates of a Corona-positive player. IF a player has been vaccinated ,he can keep on playing; IF not, he has to quarantine for 10 days. I'm told that many high school athletes can be seen in vaccination lines.

Regrettably the vaccination lines weren't as long as we had hoped  , as many games have been cancelled because of positive testing resulting in not enough non-quarantined players to field a team. Schools that are forced to regress to remote study because of outbreaks can not practice or play any sports. Our season is into the 4th week, so far I've worked two games and had two games cancelled.....and yours  .

[bama_stripes]

There have been several games statewide that have been forfeited due to Covid-related lack of numbers.
Some schools have resorted to remote classes for a week or two to try to lessen the outbreaks, but the athletes are still allowed to practice and play.

[Ralph Damren]

There have been several games statewide that have been forfeited due to Covid-related lack of numbers.
Some schools have resorted to remote classes for a week or two to try to lessen the outbreaks, but the athletes are still allowed to practice and play.

Our "CCs" (Covid cancellations) aren't considered forfeits, just no game. I am still uncertain how post season will be handled. Vermont had a creative way of handling last year's post season. They had an open playoff of any schools that wanted to partake ,regardless of record. The names of all participating schools were put in a hat and the pairings would be decided by a drawing, so the teams with the two best records OR the teams with the two worst records could meet in the first round.

[/IN CHALLANGING TIMES, CREATIVITY IS A VALUBLE COMMONITY....
                                                        - AUTHOR UNKNOWN b]

[ElvisLives]

Four weeks under our belts, and I am not aware of any game cancelations in Texas, for any reason. Covid numbers rose a bit with the 'variant,' but are stabilized - dropping in most places. The hundreds of thousands of illegal and unvaccinated illegal aliens haven't helped, but if we can get the Feds out of the way, we'll take care of that, and get the numbers waaaaayyyy down.

Keep the faith.

[dammitbobby]

Every week in our chapter (Texas) we've had cancellations - not many, but enough to make things a nightmare for our assigner.

[ElvisLives]

Every week in our chapter (Texas) we've had cancellations - not many, but enough to make things a nightmare for our assigner.

Varsity?  Hmmm. We haven't had any.

[dammitbobby]

Varsity?  Hmmm. We haven't had any.

Yes.  Particularly 6 man teams/smaller schools, where losing a handful of kids to quarantine means they can't field a team.  Between that, not using crews, and just being shorthanded all around, it's a scheduling nightmare.

[refjeff]

There have been cancellations in Ohio every week.

Crews have been scrambling for subs when officials are Covid sick or quarantined.

Last week in NW Ohio a coach died and an official died from/with Covid.