ST. LOUIS —
On May 15, many high school football teams will have the opportunity to begin off-season training in preparation for the fall season.
Just five months after winning the Missouri state championship title, the De Smet Spartans are unsure whether or not a football season will begin on time in 2020.
The De Smet varsity football team is scheduled to begin summer camp in June. Head football coach Rob Steeples said that is still the plan for the time being.
“Even though we may be able to get back to things May 15, there’s even people within our community impacted by COVID,” Steeples said. “So, we just wanna make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure they’re comfortable. I’m in this game to help our young men, to challenge them. To challenge them to make compromises sometimes, but one of those compromises shouldn’t be their health.”
Steeples said that the safety and health of the players is his main priority, but a shortened or canceled season could very well affect the future of some players who are hoping to pursue football past the high school level.
“It will impact things with colleges,” Steeples said. “I think you might see an uptick in kids choosing the prep school route where they do the one-year transition school. Do a transition year to get one more year of film and then move on. There’s still options.”
While there’s still a chance for varsity football to begin camp on time, De Smet canceled camps in June for nearly 14 other sports and clubs.
The only camp rescheduled for July was De Smet’s youth football camp. Steeples said De Smet’s leadership board is currently discussing new safety guidelines that will be implemented in order for the camp to take place.
“Limiting the amount of people on the field together,” Steeples said. “So, if that means splitting up your camps or splitting up your teams. We’re gonna have sanitizer for everybody there. There will be ways we go about sanitizing equipment after practice. As new information comes about, we want to apply as much of it as we can.”
Pukula added that the varsity football program will have similar guidelines that will be derived from government regulations, CDC recommendations and De Smet’s athletic trainer who’s employed by Mercy Hospital.
“So, we’re kind of following Mercy’s guidelines for the medical stuff,” Pukula said. “When we do get back, we’re gonna have to take everybody’s temperature when they come in. My big thing is we could all get started back up and as soon as somebody gets it, they’re gonna want us to shut down for another period of time.”
Pukula said the situation is changing daily, but the main focus will remain player safety. He added that there’s no guarantee.
