AVON, Ohio — Aug. 1 marked the first day schools across Ohio were permitted to hold practices for their fall sport programs under the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s decision and the Avon Eagles football team were among them.
The Eagles are taking all of the precautions possible to ensure the health and safety of the players and staff. Before practices can begin, everyone is symptom checked. Staff conducts temperature checks and everyone wears masks.
Staff has also set up sanitation stations along the side of the fields.
Right now under OSHAA guidelines, football programs can only hold practices at this point and no school vs. school scrimmages are permitted.
While the Eagles wait to see if they’ll have a season and prepare to face other teams when the time comes, they remain hopeful that the precautions the team is taking will pay off.
“Having a negative mindset about things like that isn’t going to do anybody any good,” said Eagles tight end Andrew Smith. “Especially with all of the uncertainty and everything—you just want to have something to hope for and I think high school football is that thing that people can hope for.”
Running back and defensive end Desmond Kelly said although the future is uncertain, he’s ready to keep practicing for as long as the state will allow him to.
“We’re still just practicing like we do, we’re just going to keep practicing until they tell us not to,” Kelly said. “We know it’s a risk to be out here practicing but we all took that chance.”
“It brings a lot of energy into me just thinking that we still have a game coming up.”
RELATED: OHSAA says high school sports can start Aug. 1, health departments urge schools to postpone
