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Who cares about right and left politics. Let's come up with a plan to mitigate risks so we can get back to school and play football.

It seems odd that this post gets 0 replies and there are a bazillion posts about cancelling/postponing the season.

There are going to be positive cases, that was expected, as IHSAA Commish stated here, and what most people understand. Taking it 2 weeks at a time as we approach August.

Speaking of Lions, Tigers and Bears. Jiffy Lube near Hamilton Town Center, before: And after:

I don’t know. Have you seen some of the railroad crossings and 4-way intersections when the corn is up? Fort Branch can be pretty dangerous. 😀 (Sorry, couldn’t resist! Lol)

Context Matters:

There is a certain amount of risk "X" that a society has to agree to in order to function. The risk "X" is always higher in urban areas. "X" is always higher in urban areas...think of it of how many ways are their to die in New York City vs Fort Branch Indiana. To have a functioning society, people will die. Does it mean society or those those that support it have some sort of lack a value for life? The differing opinions here are all about risk tolerance and what is "necessary" for a functioning society. To get back to anything close to normalcy, I think folks are going to have to agree to slide their value "X" toward the end of greater risk. Don't watch TV, look at the STATs that matter on the web from your state health department. If a social media headline says the word "case" in it.....don't read it (its fear mongering). Let's talk about how to manage risk, not how to hide from it. Whatever stance you take....make sure you can live with it when the issue hits close to home. One size won't fit all here, there could be counties in Indiana that shouldn't play sports. The target will move....adjustments will have to be made. Be willing to do the hard work (isn't that what football teaches us)....don't cancel out of fear.

Quite the leap you went with there. for love love of every thing GID, can we not bring every political hot button into this section of the forum. I have learned to live with most of the Covid related talk, obviously as we are getting closer and its been relatively contained to protocols, opinions on what best for schools and such and not politicized for the most part. I posted the videos when I saw them today because it was a great message by those Seniors who want the decision makers in their district to know how they feel about the decision.

This is a step in the right direction, I believe. These kids need this and these Seniors need it. We are on the right path here and as long as we can follow mandates given by the IHSAA all Fall Sports should happen.

Who are the guy that you think will be breakout players for your team this year? For Pioneer, I expect junior Brock Robinson to be a 2-way stand out at DB as well as at running back. He will be competing for touches with the Lewellen boys, but is very good with the ball in his hands. Pioneer will also be starting freshman Cayden Hill at QB and potentially at DB as well. He has some maturing to do mentally, but should be able to help out more and more as the season progresses.

Certainly my take on their reasoning...craven though it may be. Honestly embarrassed for them...and disgusted.

Ahh yes cause during WW2... Blacks couldn't vote...eat, sleep, go to school, use bathroom or swim in a damn pool with whites or attend schools with whites. But yeah times were so great back then.

It's already happened and apparently we are. https://medium.com/wake-up-call/the-gut-punch-of-losing-my-healthy-dad-to-covid-19-20fa36c95f1c

That’s right, Pope John XXIII.

If there is football I expect schedules will be modified week by week. Week 2 a school will cancel their season due to health concerns. Week 4 and 5 4 teams will have to forfeit because they have too many key players out. On Sunday teams who don't have an opponent the following week will pair up to play. They'll play either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday depending on when they can get officials. There could be a similar issue with officials cancelling before the season or losing games throughout the season.

Other differences also include residual/long-term effects ... including among those that were not hospitalized: https://www.yahoo.com/news/as-post-covid-heart-and-brain-problems-linger-some-coronavirus-survivors-find-its-a-long-haul-to-recovery-165434453.html

Indiana ALL strains of flu deaths 2019-2020 season: 166 Allen County Covid deaths since, what, March 2020: 158 Indiana Covid deaths since March 2020: 2863

Many here have described 6-man as being like "basketball on a football field". Scores, especially the winning team's in mis-matched games, gets crazy high. There is a 45-point mercy rule that gets used a fair bit. Think of the St Louis Rams "greatest show on turf"-style offense, and you have a high school version of that in the 6-man game if your offense is clicking on all cylinders. Put two well matched 6-man teams together, it's going to be a very fun and interesting evening if you like huge offensive numbers. Good offenses score basically every time they get the ball. Some teams play better D than others, but it's more often than not an offensive showdown. Oh, and the field is slightly smaller. I'm not against 6-man. Better that than nothing. If the kids want to play, I say more power to them. There is blocking, tackling, running, passing just like 11-man, but as told to me by a 6-man parent "it ain't quite the same game". Doesn't mean it's inferior, just different. Those kids train just as hard and long as 11-man players and are asked to do just as much. I would rather see schools playing 8-man or co-oping than not playing at all.

YAWN ALL OF IT THANK YOU

Glad it is happening somewhere. I knew everyone wouldn't share the same opinion and that is fine. My experience in the northeast compared to what I grew up with in SW Ohio lacks a little in my opinion. I have been here for more than a couple decades now and I have not once seen a band at an away football game. From the time I remember going to games in grade school onward the bands were both always at the game and they were always fully dressed, rain or shine, 100 degrees or 0 degrees. Every week they did something different along with some of their usual favorites. Here it is home games only and fair weather only. I did hear rumors once a number of years ago of a visiting teams band desiring to attend a game during playoffs but I'm not aware if they did so. If it's too hot they are in t-shirts and shorts (I don't have a issue with this, it's just different). If it's raining, they head home. When half time is over most band parents head home and at some of the schools the band has pretty much filtered out by the end of the third quarter at others they stay but you never hear an instrument. Many times they don't even bring their instruments to the stands where they sit anymore. The half time production is just that a production, a practice for their competition and it's the same every game. Perhaps it's always been that way around here and it's normal to them. I did make it back to a watch a game with my sister in my neck of the woods in Ohio sometime in the past ten years while a friend's son was a senior and things there are still very similar to what I recall. Both bands were there from before the game until the last whistle. They played from the stands during dead time. They built off of each other back and forth across the field. They pumped up the student sections and the adult fans. They split the time at halftime between the bands so you have to be on and off quickly so no concert instruments lining the entire sideline. A wise band director might inquire about comments like these and learn from them rather than getting butt hurt and taking his ball and going home. All that said there are some very good bands up this way and DeKalb is usually one of them. Norwell, East Noble, Homestead, Carroll, Snider, Northside, Concordia, and Woodlan to name just a few more are good at what they do, it just doesn't fit the mold I grew up with as described above..

Wow...my grammar there is superb. I should stick to posting from a PC where I can actually see the characters I’m typing.

Not voting for the POTUS because you are lazy and not voting for the POTUS because you believe their are no appropriate candidates running are two different things.

in regards to leadership......General MacArthur always said that in any venture of life,..... failure can be summed up in two words....."Too Late"

Yes. No one on this Forum has done that.

As a Social Studies Teacher, Coach and a Vet I say if student athletes want to kneel they have the right. If the current issues in this country lead athletes to kneel then kneel it is their right, but in all honesty I agree with Coach Nowlin we should get back to the fun of this forum and talk football.

Tell you all a little story . . . a true story. Family friends live in Indianapolis area. Members of said family went to get test for COVID. Filled out the paperwork and handed it in to the folks at the testing site. After handing in the paperwork, they found out the wait was going to be over two hours. Not wanting to wait two hours, they left. A few days later one of the members that filled out the paperwork received a call. Was told they had COVID. That family member said, "No, I don't" The medical person on the other end of the line said, "Yes, you do. We got your results back and you are positive." That family member said, "I don't have COVID because I was never tested. We left because the line was too long. You never tested me because we left and never were tested." How do things like this happen? And if this is just one case of false reporting of a so-called positive test, how many others are out there that are being falsely reported? As always, the game is better from_the_sidelines007

Instead of locking down and staying in our homes we need to learn to live with this virus. Back when this started science said a lockdown would allow us to get ahead of the virus. IT DID. We were told to slowly reopen and to wear masks, social distance, and wash our hands. WE DIDN'T. So now we are trending upward. This isn't going away even though POTUS claims it will some day disappear. Common sense tells us to try and make kids understand what the adults can't. We can beat this by following the three rules: wear masks, social distance, and wash our hands. Other countries have done it. Maybe our state can do it.

I would venture to say that many schools are developing a plan for indoor athletic events, as well as outdoor athletic events. For many, that development is still being created. Many that work around the high school athletic arena are familiar with the boxes that need checked to prepare for hosting an athletic event. If one is not aware of the many, many boxes that need to be checked, here are just a few: Concessions Event officials Handling team personnel Locker facilities Parking Press box Restrooms Seating arrangements, if there are any Security Sideline procedures Spectator limits, if there are any Ticketing Video/Media broadcasting plans And I certainly could have missed something . . . if I did, pardon my error. But I think many of you get my point. There are a lot of details that need to be covered within a set of guidelines, offered by the state, which changes frequently. I would imagine that this is one of the toughest challenges our athletic directors have faced because of the constant change. From what I have heard, things are still progressing forward. However, if things do not change I would not be surprised if they all came to an abrupt stop in the near future. How long is anybody's guess but with the current volatility of the virus and increased infection rates that are worse than when this thing started - the outlook does not look good. I hate to sound so pessimistic, but we are going to be lucky to play any games this fall. The silver lining is that, until they tell us differently, we continue to press forward and many schools are exercising caution to minimize risk of everyone. There are many folks out there that are doing the very best they can to help a lot of kids, parents, grandparents, community members, coaches, officials, media members, etc., etc., compete again. This is to all those out there that are hoping and praying for athletics to make a successful return! As always, the game is better from_the_sidelines007

That’s what I’ve always thought too. Some people seem to be actually cheering for the season to be cancelled under the guise of being concerned for the kids. They say, I REALLY want to have a season but man I just don’t see it, unless everyone wears a mask. But even then if one person gets sick...... What has never been offered by these people was a solution. They only promote and comment on scenarios to close down the season because that’s really what they want. The Proof being exactly what you just posted.

Great response by IHSAA Leadership. They will receive a lot of pressure from those who want to not start over the next 2-3 weeks. I respect their determination and thoughtfulness to keep moving forward and not panic.

Somewhat to the contrary in recent studies. Some have split the youth level into kids under 10 and those in school older than 10 and have seen differences in transmission potential. A recent study, out of South Korea, showed that, while kids 10 and under seem to transmit at lower levels than adults, kids that are 10-18 seem to transmit at a similar level as adults. Most studies that I've seen in the past have lumped kids into the under 18 age group. It'd be interesting to see what the numbers look like in the Iceland study looks like accounting for further subdivision. Another trend that is starting to show is the number of case appearing in younger people compared to what we saw earlier in the onset. Deaths are not yet tracking at earlier levels, and may not, but hospitalizations are on the upswing again and, in several places, putting healthcare resources under strain ... e.g., over 40 hospitals in Florida are at capacity in ICU beds, Houston has already maxxed out and is accepting adult patients at the children's hospital due to resource constraints, etc. One of the bigger issues that I think tend to get lost in the back-and-forths that I've seen is that folks are looking at the outcome of a study and not the reasoning behind it. For example, there's a recent study out of Germany that says that says that transmission rates are lower for kids, but if you read through the details you see that German schools are practicing mandatory face coverings and social distancing AND as a society, they are doing the same on a very constant basis. Those results really can't be applied to the US moving forward since we don't seem to do social distancing anymore than at a minimal level as well as masking ... and given that those issues are not even treated as health issues anymore and much more about politics, the outputs aren't likely to be replicated with a difference in inputs. Article on older student transmission rate ... https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.html Article looking at increase in younger population, not school age, contraction ... https://www.vox.com/2020/7/18/21328358/covid-19-cases-by-age-florida-arizona-texas-miami Article from German study about school kids and transmission ... https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/14/schools-coronavirus-infection-rate-low-german-study-finds.html Site that allows you to look at groupings by age among other things ... allows you to see changes in hospitalizations over time ... https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/COVIDNet/COVID19_5.html

Field turf At TW has been approved for next spring. But that’s what we were told last year.

I think what the Student Athletes of North Central did with the Video is awsome. Those seniors have been working for years to prepare for this year and to have it taken away for a virus with a 99 percent recovery rate is crazy.

Westfield gonna be loaded. Incoming JR class VERY GOOD. Hauser at RB. Very talented kid.

I've seen different, but then I watch traditionally soccer/football rich programs around here. Also, the tide is turning around here to more artificial surfaces and having two surfaces for different sports, but not always. I've seen a lot of FB and Marching Band. I've seen the coaches I know bend over backwards to help young men and young women to play whatever they'd like. I simply threw a wish out there, but you can go contrarian if you'd like.

I am awake. You have your head not in the sand but up your a##. The lives of African Americans are being taken and we say it is for safety. Meanwhile our federal government is taking a stand that the Confederacy something to celebrate and that we should send in our stormtroopers to stop protests. LAW AND ORDER. RIGHT? Yet students standing up for the LIVES of their African American teammates/classmates is wrong? My corner of the world has a lot of @Temptationin it. The death rate of the virus isn't the only thing that is concerning. If ICU beds are used for COVID what about the people who need them for other illnesses? Sorry we are out of beds. We will put your corpse into a cooling truck out back when you die. The dots are connected. It's the sheep who blindly follow a leader who has been dismissive of this because it hurts his political agenda. A couple of weeks ago @DannEllenwood was preaching the 99.9% where did that go? I deal in reality and in people not in my own self interests.

How so? If students can make protest one thing why not another? We have @DannEllenwood spouting off about "ALL LIVES MATTER" and that is okay? It's funny how you allow people to spout off about how the virus will disappear on 11/4 like it is a made up thing. People like @DannEllenwood and @Temptation should be the ones who feel bad. Their hypocrisy is astounding. They have totally politicized it and yet I get called out for it. My wife is going to work today on a COVID floor that is almost full. Less than four weeks ago there was barely any patients there. This isn't fake but people on this forum are claiming that it is. It's real and getting worse. @Coach Nowlin call them out and ask them to stop! We have allowed them to give their false narrative but I can't ask the people what they think about another matter?

What about if these same kids were to kneel during the Anthem? Would you feel the same?