A Football Season Like No Other
Braxton Davis is currently following his dreams of being a firefighter as he currently is in training for his dream job. Davis also had a notable career for the Colorado State Rams football team from 2015–2019. While he was in firefighter training last fall, he also served as an assistant football coach for Poudre High School in Fort Collins. Being a former college player, Davis had seen a lot of different situations but nothing was like what he saw as a coach under the pandemic. I called Davis for an interview to see what the season looked like from a coach’s perspective.
Greene: Before the season even began, there was little clarity if a football season would even happen, and by this time it was well into September, when usually the season would be well under way. What was this period of not knowing if your team would play like for you?
Davis: There was so much disappointment among the kids. Also, because we had no decision from the governor or CHSAA, we really couldn’t do any football related activities. Everything seemed kind of pointless.
Greene: How would you then summarize the morale of the players and coaches during this down period?
Davis: Disappointed. Depressed. And worried.
Greene: What did you as coaches plan activity wise for the kids during the “dead” period?
Davis: We couldn’t do much in person so we did a lot of Zoom meetings going through general work and game planning in case we did have a season. We wanted to prepare them the best we could (remotely) but with it being online there was a lot of personal accountability that needed to come from the kids.
Greene: Once the state said high school football was a go, what were some initial challenges with following all the COVID guidelines?
Davis: It was a challenge at practices to socially distance the kids and make sure they kept their masks up. It was odd because if they were in a drill and had their helmet on they didn’t need to wear a mask but as soon as they take their helmet off, the mask has to go up and that was hard to control. A lot of the process was trial and error for us coaches. We ended up limiting the amount of players on the field at a time to better regulate things. The organization and scheduling on the front end was a big priority for practices.
Greene: For games, fans are really important, how was the fan situation different this season?
Davis: The fan turnout was very little and everyone had to be socially distanced in the stands. The lack of fans kind of ruined the school pride and community aspect that comes from high school sports.
Greene: And the effects of the lack of fans on the players?
Davis: While the motivation with little fans went down, oddly enough I saw it not mattering as much as I thought it would. Because of all the uncertainty on if there would even be a season before, once games began, players just seemed grateful to just see the field so the fan turnout did not matter as much.
Greene: One big change for the season was it was six games (barring any cancelations) instead of the usual ten. How did a condescend schedule affect the game plan strategy as coach?
Davis: Again, it was a lot of trial and error as well as experimenting. Because there was no fall camp or preseason, we had to almost teach on the fly. It was dumbed down a lot. We started by sending our players ten plays, then two after that. With the lack of time to prepare we coaches thought it would be best not to overload the players on plays. We also asked our players to be open to playing two or even three positions with the COVID situation. Adaptability was big this year for the kids.
Greene: With all these challenges that you have mentioned so far, do you think the play of the kids suffered in games?
Davis: The lack of time to prepare before the season made it hard to go off any results in practice so we had to go off previous seasons performances of players and just gut feelings and trust. It was not the ideal way to go about it but again, lots of trial and error. Also, COVID knocked a couple of kids out and that puts them out for two weeks. Roster changes were constant which resulted in a different look every game it seemed. The team bonding aspect of sports also was lost because COVID made it hard to spend any time with your teammates. One positive thing we coaches saw was our kid’s grades went up because they were forced to maintain a certain GPA to be able to play. So that was a pleasant outcome.
Greene: Looking back, what is your opinion on how CHSAA and the governor handled the decision making of allowing a season or not? And did you personally think it was safe enough to have a season?
Davis: I think that period where no one knew what was happening was not fair or mentally healthy for the kids. A lot of kids put their heart into football and have done so all throughout high school and even before that too. The best thing the state could have done was just make a decision quickly so the anticipation did happen. It created a lot of unneeded stress and anxiety by drawing out the decision. I think under COVID, playing should be up to the individual, kind of like “enter at your own risk”. Each kid is different in what they can physically and mentally handle under COVID so it should be their individual choice. I also do not think CHSAA realized that football means so much more to these kids. It is life long friendships for some but more importantly, some kids need football to have a chance at a college education through scholarships.
