The Philomath High football program kept its practice sessions fairly low key with on-campus activities only. Some other schools from around the region participated in a few 7-of-7 competitions on the gridiron.
Head coach Tony Matta and the players had workouts from Oct. 12-Nov. 6 with most of the other fall sports teams.
“The four weeks we got to see football kids three days a week, some days we had almost all 30 of them that were signed up and some days we had 12 of them,” Matta said. “For us coaches, it gave us a chance to get out of the office and get outside and see kids and work with kids. That’s certainly been a plus.”
Despite the restrictions, Matta said the players were able to get in some offensive and defensive work.
“You couldn’t do everything that you would normally do,” Matta said. “You couldn’t have pads and no contact but we got to do some stuff and the kids that were there got to see some of the adjustments offensively and defensively. It was good, it was really good for us.”
Matta said students have done a pretty good job of following the restrictions with the wearing of masks and staying 6 feet apart.
“In football, we were outside and we could tell them that if they could stay 6 feet apart, you don’t have to have your mask on,” Matta said. “But if I put them in a line and they aren’t 6 feet apart … they would have to wear their mask. And I always had extras in case a kid forgot theirs so that was never an excuse.”