Wildcats going above and beyond to minimize COVID-19 risks

As schools and football teams around the state continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic – as well as ever-evolving state guidelines – the Enterprise Wildcats are being proactive in attempting to ensure the virus doesn’t impact their 2020 season.

The Enterprise staff has implemented a plan that sees coaches give players temperature checks before entering the field house. If a player has a temperature of 100.4 or above they are to be sent home. Once in the field house everyone uses hand sanitizer and wears facial coverings. Hand sanitizing stations are placed in multiple locations in the field house.

The Wildcat locker room is also used in shifts. The freshmen – who have fourth period football class – is already on the field and practicing by the time varsity players begin to arrive for practice. Then, the offense is required to enter the locker room and be on the field by 3:20 p.m., when the defense is then allowed into the locker room. Player’s lockers are staggered so that there are at least two spaces in between each player while they are in the locker room.

“The locker room is always at 1/3 capacity and they aren’t all over each other,” Enterprise head coach Rick Darlington said. “They’re spaced out where you have an offensive locker, freshman locker, empty locker and then defensive locker.”

Once the players leave the locker room, a custodian sprays down each locker with disinfectant.

In the weight room, the Wildcats space out as much as possible, wear facial coverings and staff members disinfect the equipment multiple times per session.

Enterprise also spaces out multiple seats between players during film sessions.

On the field is where things get trickier.

“Practice is the trickiest place to do it because your whole team is out there,” Darlington said.

On the field, Enterprise has markers painted on the sideline every nine feet that are referred to as “dots” that players are required to kneel or stand on when not on the field of play. Also, players don’t share water bottles and are required to bring their own bottles to practice that can be filled up.

“I can’t imagine anyone in high school (football) taking more precautions than we are,” Darlington said. “We can’t test them everyday for money reasons but we can use those thermometers every time they come in the building, we do hand sanitizer every time you walk past a station, we can space them out as much as possible and we can wear masks.

“We’re doing everything we can to not get quarantined and not get kids sick so that we can have a season.”

Darlington said that his coaches talk to players every day about making sure that they aren’t getting too close to individuals – especially ones that they aren’t around all the time – outside of the team and their families so as to further lower their risk of exposure. He said that his players have taken to the protocols and guidelines the team has been doing, too.

“The kids are great and they understand why we’re doing this,” Darlington said. “When you first do something different you have to remind them but now you don’t even have to say it. They get used to it.”

While Darlington is fully aware of the uphill battle the 2020 season is going to be to play, he said he couldn’t imagine his seniors not getting the opportunity to play this year.

“It’s an unusual season but we want to play a season, especially for the seniors,” Darlington said. “I can’t imagine those guys not having a season.”

In basketball, the high school season may only be three or four months but players have the opportunity to play year round with rec leagues and AAU leagues. The same goes for baseball, but football is a unique sport in that sense.

“Football is that rare sport that you train for year round for a season that’s only two or three months,” Darlington said. “Basketball and baseball you train for year round but you also can play year round. In football we can’t do that. There’s been a lot of sweat and hard work invested into this thing and we want to make sure that these kids get to play this season.”