Stress. Chaos. Heartbreak. Coast football teams ‘couldn’t get away from COVID-19.’
If there’s one high school football coach in South Mississippi who should be enjoying the 2020 season, it’s Larry Dolan at D’Iberville.
Dolan and his players have pieced together an undefeated regular season that has the D’Iberville faithful talking about a trip to the Class 6A title game.
But playing football during the coronavirus pandemic has proved a constant challenge for the Warriors and all high school programs across South Mississippi.
After a crucial 27-24 win at Ocean Springs on Oct. 2, Dolan’s expression turned grim when discussion turned to COVID-19’s chaos.
“It’s absolutely awful to deal with,” Dolan said with a shake of his head. “Ocean Springs was missing one of their best linebackers tonight, probably their best defensive player. It can happen to any of us at anytime.”
Frustration has turned to relief and joy as D’Iberville finished off a 9-0 regular season with a 34-16 win at St. Martin last week. This Friday, the Warriors host Petal in a first-round contest in the Class 6A playoffs.
While D’Iberville has been lucky — up to this point — to not have to quarantine or forfeit games, each team is one bad break away from having their season end because of COVID-19.
Brookhaven had to forfeit this Friday’s first-round playoff game against Pascagoula because of COVID-19, allowing the Panthers to advance and host a second-round playoff game against the winner of Hattiesburg-South Jones.
D’Iberville has had players miss games due to COVID-19 protocols, but it’s been lucky compared to other programs in the area.
Six of the 24 South Mississippi schools that play football in the Mississippi High School Activities Association have had to enter quarantine at some point, forcing them to miss games — Biloxi, Long Beach, Hancock, Gulfport, West Harrison and George County.
Those six teams had to sit out 10 games this season, and only Biloxi made the playoffs.
The three Coast teams that won region titles this season didn’t have to forfeit a single game or enter quarantine — Pascagoula, D’Iberville and Moss Point.
“It’s so hard to enjoy this season when you show up to school every day not sure about who is going to be sent home,” Dolan said in October. “Everybody is facing it. I just hope and pray. You’ve got to treat every game it’s your last one because it might be. Everyone in the country is dealing with it.
“It’s hard to have a lot of fun. We’re rolling right now, but if we get to school Monday and somebody is in contact tracing and the wrong guy gets it, we’re in trouble.’”
Gulfport, Hancock football hit hard by COVID-19
Hancock High School had its season derailed in late September, sitting out a pair of games and entering quarantine for 14 days.
Gulfport entered quarantine at the same time and the Admirals’ game at Hancock on Oct. 9 was called off with both teams unable to play because of the coronavirus.
With both teams in quarantine, each squad had a loss added to their record under new rules set by the MHSAA to help determine who makes the playoffs.
Gulfport, a program that had won three consecutive 4-6A region titles entering this season, took a long list of precautions to avoid outbreaks, but no program was hit harder by the coronavirus.
“I just feel like we couldn’t get away from COVID,” Gulfport coach John Archer said. “That’s not an excuse. We just had a bunch of bad breaks. Things didn’t go our way a lot of times.”
It was Sept. 28 when Hancock first found out it would have to forfeit the upcoming game against St. Martin and enter a 14-day quarantine.
Hawks head coach Neil Lollar was aware of the climbing COVID-19 numbers at the school, but hoped his team could move forward and avoid a stoppage.
“We came in that Monday, and some of our kids had been pulled by the administration because of close-contact tracing,” Lollar said. “We knew we were going to be missing starters.”
During a lightning delay at practice that night, Lollar got the call that football coaches fear.
“That’s when administration called me and asked where we were,” Lollar said. “They came out and met with me and told me the whole school was being quarantined and we’d have to shut down operations. We had already had an hour of practice that day.”
A day later, Hancock High School switched to remote learning and kept its entire student body home to quarantine for 14 days.
Coast football coaches adjust to virus
A high school football coach is never without stress, but 2020 has offered challenges that few could have expected when they entered the profession.
“At times, it was a guessing game,” he said. “It was ‘Who is going to be out? Who are we going to put here?’ You’d potentially be missing a coach. If a coach got it, you’d have to decide who took over what role and who would be making what calls. I hate to say it was somewhat of a guessing game, but you had to prepare each day for certain things.”
Because of tropical systems in the Gulf and the coronavirus, Lollar said there was only one week when his team had a full week of practice.
That was the week of the 21-14 upset win over previously undefeated Harrison Central on Oct. 23.
While COVID-19 hasn’t changed much about the way games are played, schools made adjustments for workouts and practices that avoided large groups of players gathering for extended periods of time.
“We did everything from separating players to separating teams so we can practice in case of an outbreak and take one team to a game on Friday,” Archer said. “We limited our weight room to 12 players at a time. We just had a series of bad breaks and couldn’t get away from it.”
Pascagoula, which clinched the No. 1 seed in Region 4-5A, is one of the Coast teams that hasn’t had to enter quarantine or forfeit games, but coach Lewis Sims knows his team isn’t in the clear just yet.
“What I’ve learned in my short time on this earth is you’ve got to be prepared for any twist and turn that may come your way,” he said. “Good or bad, you’ve got to respond.”
While states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Illinois moved back their high school football seasons to 2021, Mississippi players and coaches are grateful that the MHSAA decided to go ahead with the fall season — even if it wasn’t the prettiest of campaigns.
“I’m very thankful the state allowed us to play,” Lollar said. “These players and students, they deserved to have the opportunity. We did lose some games, but Friday night was our senior night. They got to have that opportunity. That was the last time a lot of seniors will put on a helmet. We’re blessed and thankful for that opportunity.
“Do I want to go through that again? No, not necessarily.”
High school football schedule
All Friday games kick off at 7 p.m.
- Resurrection at Simmons
- East Central at Laurel
- South Pike at Poplarville
- Petal at D’Iberville
- Biloxi at Oak Grove
- Ocean Springs at Northwest Rankin
- Pearl at Harrison Central
- West Jones at Picayune
