More Georgia high school teams begin offseason work
Players and coaches with Douglass High School football cleaned and sanitized their weight room after their first offseason workout on Monday
ATLANTA - More high school teams around Georgia got back to work on Monday. The Georgia High School Association allowed schools to start offseason workouts -- with strict safety guidelines to guard against COVID-19 -- on Monday, June 8th, but some districts elected to wait a little longer.
"The kids were excited, coaches excited, everybody excited to get back to work," said Douglass High School football coach Rodney Cofield. "You only can cut the grass so much."
Atlanta Public Schools, including Douglass, allowed their programs to start Monday. Cofield says the most important station as his student athletes returned to campus was the check-in table, where players had their temperatures taken and answered questions about their health. Other precautions included facemasks, hand sanitizer stations in the weight room and cleaning and sanitizing equipment after use.
Cofield also hopes for some clarity regarding what might happen with high school football in 2020. He says that, after missing spring practice, teams will need to ramp up activity if they are going to get physically ready to play football without increased risk of injury.
"There's a lot of decisions that have not been made, a lot of questions that need to be answered," said Cofield. "All I'm saying is, if we're gonna play, then we're gonna play. If not, then we need to stop wasting time. I'm serious. You can't get ready like this. This ain't football preparation. The body has got to adjust. This game is physical."
Fulton County high schools were also permitted to start offseason work on Monday.
"It's fantastic," said Milton football head coach Adam Clack. "Every since we got the word that we were going to be able to see them June 15th, started putting the plan together, you started getting excited. Just to know, 'hey, we're back.' Start putting in the work."
Clack says, even without workouts and practice, he's been as busy as ever trying to figure out plans for his team during coronavirus.
"You're tackling problems as they come," said Clack. "There really wasn't much down time, in my opinion. From the time we got out, we were constantly looking at, 'what should we be doing now? What should we be planning for in the future?'"