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HELLO SPORTS!

For those of you who aren't aware or live out of the great state then you don't know that Texas started allowing high school strength and conditioning exercises starting June 8th. This means coaches, athletes, athletic trainers, and support staff are finally able to come off a three month "break" and ready to get to work! Friday Night Lights are practically religious for Texans!

Unfortunately COVID is still among us, so the new season brings on new challenges.

For me this meant the opportunity to go and help at my new school. Each week I drive out to Denison a couple times to help out and watch workouts until we move down in mid-July. Nothing like a 4am drive to clear your mind before a day of workouts. If you're a podcast fan check out JJ Redick's podcast, or my favorite True Crime All the Time! Love an early start to the day and it's easy to wake up knowing that you get to do a job you love.

One thing that I really appreciate about my new job is that they are taking all the necessary precautions in order to make our kids safe. We held a coaches only orientation on the first day where we went through the rules and did a staff only walk through, then we had a walk through with our athletes to show them the ropes on the second day. After both walk throughs it was finally time to hit the ground running. Below are some of our guidelines in place and feel free to share how we can make things better and safer for our kids, or feel free to practice some of our approaches!

Kids are separated into groups of 10-15 for every one and possibly two coaches. This ensures that in the event of a positive test we don't have to eliminate the conditioning program altogether and only the one group will have to quarantine.

We are requiring our student athletes to keep whatever they wear to workouts on their person, and provide their own towel and water bottle. We recommend that clothes stay on to prevent the spreading of germs through sweat. No sharing rule, no sharing water bottles, towels, etc!

Coaches and maintenance are working hand in hand to disinfect everything after its used by one group and each athlete. We have spray bottles assigned to the coaches to prevent multiple hands touching the nozzle, and they go around and spray equipment after each group use. At the end of the day every room, location, equipment (bands, balls, weights, etc), touched is disinfected with a mister so it gets another thorough cleaning.

Thermometers are also assigned to each coach of a group to again prevent the risk of contamination of other groups and Coaches are responsible for keeping up with it.

Daily screenings are done each day prior to workout and the group screens with their assigned coach. They are asked symptoms and have their temperatures taken. Any sign of fever and they are sent home. If an athlete reports a symptom they are sent home or asked to not show to be on the safe side. I will say that our athletes have done a great job of reporting potential exposures and not showing up and putting others at risk.

We are also documenting any changes or symptoms reported each day to make sure to make appropriate follow ups.

Bathrooms are limited to one person at a time and the person is responsible for spraying disinfectant on everything they touched.

Masks are recommended, and the athletes and coaches do a great job of keeping the social distance rule. I want to applaud the athletes and staff here of doing a great job keeping each other socially distant and accountable.

We also limited workouts to Varsity/JV football, Varsity/JV Girls' sports only for the first week. And waited a week to add the freshman, 7th, and 8th grade this week after going through the initial week with the older kids. Other Varsity/JV Boys' sports were also added during the second week. Right now our numbers are in the 300 range and we have been doing our best to keep by the guidelines and adapting to the changes!

and lastly HAND SANITIZER everywhere! We recommend cleaning hands as often as possible throughout the workout.

At the end of the day the goal is to have a football/fall season, and a safe one! The goal is to have a "normal" packed stadium with fans and the usual Friday Night Lights atmosphere. This whole pandemic has taught a lot of us how to be better and adapt to changes and guidelines. The job is easy when you have coaches and athletes doing their part to ensure the safety.

As an athletic trainer this has been a learning experience, and I am thankful to be doing my actual job and being able to see athletes practicing their craft. I will say that the job transition has been easy with the help of the staff and excellent communication. The changes make the job different but they are worth the challenge especially if it means having a fall season and keeping our kids in school safe! The main goal is to keep our athletes, and ourselves healthy and safe.

So stay safe, wash your hands, and keep your distance. We want to play!