By OLIVIA RAY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Indiana high school football is coming back for practice.
The Carmel Greyhounds hit the gridiron Tuesday for Day 2 of workouts with social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior linebacker Gavin Hale said, “Over the quarantine when, like, I was just sitting around, I needed to get back here. I just had this crazy desire. I was so excited Sunday night I couldn’t even sleep because I was just so anxious for this practice to come.”
For the first time in over 100 days, Indiana high school athletes returned. This week is the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s first phase of its three-step “Return to Play Plan.”
Andrew Turvey, a senior outside linebacker, said the first practice was not a normal first day of football season.
“I definitely took it for granted,” Turvey said. “You never think you won’t be able to play football. Being back with all the guys, it’s great. I missed them. They push me. I push them. We get better together. That’s how we have successes, just by making each other better single day.”
For the defending Class 6-A state champs, summer conditioning is where players build their postseason stamina.
Hebert
“That’s as far as our goals go, which is to be the best we can possibly do in Phase 1, so we get to go to Phase 2,” said John Hebert, the Carmel head football coach. “Just getting back to what we love to do. So it’s different, it looks different.”
Every day, every down and drill features new social distancing and safety measures.
Hale said, “It’s way different with all of the precautions. We have to wear masks.”
Turvey described these new safety measures. “We have a beach towel in case you want to wipe off, hand sanitizer, our own waters.”
Other safety guidelines for IHSAA’s Phase 1 include: Noncontact workouts, groups of 15 players or fewer, and a maximum of 15 hours each week that teams can be together.
Opening night of the high school football season should be six weeks away, meaning six weeks to master the new protocol and make up lost ground, with the hope that Friday night football will actually even happen.
“I’m very hopeful,” Turvey said. “This is awesome, getting to do drills and that, but I can’t wait to get going for real. We get just as much out of ‘no pads’ as we do when we go to the ground, so we’ll be ready when the time comes. Week 1, hopefully, we get the win.”
“We just want to be able to put the equipment on, the jersey on, and play another team,” Coach Hebert said. “And get the real joys of playing this game together. If we get to do that, I think that everything else that comes after is extra.”
If everything goes according to plan, the players will be extra grateful for a night under the lights on Aug. 21.