As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage across the country, and the world, the sports world is grappling with how to deal with the fast approaching fall football seasons. The future of how NFL games will be played, and how fans will be affected has yet to be determined, while college teams are dealing with their own dilemmas. Some conferences have already announced that they will be playing in-conference games only.

Local fans are keeping their fingers crossed for the upcoming 20/21 DCHS Tiger Football team. Last week the TSSAA deferred a vote as to how to deal with the high school season, leaving some coaches and players with questions as to how to proceed. The uncertainty is especially worrisome for Tiger fans, as this year's team was shaping up as the team that would be hard to beat.

"We're going to focus on what we can control as a football program," Head Coach Steve Trapp told the Smithville Review. "What they [TSSAA] were voting on, or potentially voting on, was what type of a season we could possibly have, with the executive order extended until August 29, and our first game supposed to be the 21st, within that executive order there are restrictions for certain sports, and football is one of those sports. As it is now, we can't start on time."

"They were potentially voting on, what kind of season or schedule can we put in place," Trapp continued. "They decided not to vote on that, and I don't take that as a negative. I see it as they are working with the governor, and the state, to potentially get us to start on time."

According to Trapp, as it stands now, the Tigers' first scheduled game on August 21 would not happen, and with preparation time included, the earliest game would be September 18. All that depends on whether the governor's executive order is lifted early, allowed to expire, or extended. The TSSAA will need to decide whether the season will be a seven game season with a full playoff, an eight game season with eliminating a round of the playoffs, or a nine game season and only having three rounds of the playoffs.

Coach Trapp said that the TSSAA will have to offer some guidance soon however. "In another week or two, we will need to know, because there are certain ways you have to practice and be allowed to practice to start a season. We have to control what we can control. We have this philosophy of being the most prepared team, and we're going to take this time that we're given now, do it the way we're supposed to do it, and be prepared for when they do give us the green light to play."

In the meantime, the team is practicing and preparing for the season as if everything is right on schedule, though in different ways than in the past. In an effort to social distance as much as possible for a full contact sport, the team is being coached in smaller groups than normal. Trapp said that groups of 15 to 16 guys will be on the field training, while another group is in the weight room. A disinfecting fogger is used to clean the weight room, and all equipment is wiped down between use 

"Practices are different from what we'd normally be doing right now," Trapp said. "Even before our dead period, in the month of June, we had to do things a certain way. But, with that being said, we've still been able to get the same work done. We just had to do it a little bit differently."

"We always put an emphasis on the weight room, so that didn't change. We always put an emphasis on conditioning, and that's year round. We don't back off that once season starts, out of season or whatever. But once we get into June, we are allowed to work on our playbook as well, and since we didn't get to have Spring ball, we were behind in our Xs and Os part."

Trapp continued, "The way it worked out, we could have small groups of kids and multiple coaches with them. I feel that was actually a positive, as far as getting these guys up to speed, and keeping our older guys and being able to work on some new things with them. After dead period, the phase we are in now, it's really different than what we'd normally be doing. We would be in our Fall camp phase, being able to travel around, doing seven on sevens with other teams, and things like that. We're not allowed to do that."

"We are allowed to be in groups of 50, but we've not even used that. We've kept them in small groups and continuing to do what we were doing in the month of June just because the guys were working hard and we saw positive work coming from it. So, we decided to just keep doing that until we get more concrete answers about how it's going to progress moving forward."

When asked how his team looked this year, Coach Trapp said the team looks very strong. "I like the work we've got done. Coming into last year we had a lot of juniors, and still had a small senior class but had some good seniors in that class, but this is the first time in quite a while that we've had double digit numbers in the senior class. We've had seniors years with six, seven, and eight guys in it. This group of seniors that we've got now, and some of juniors, they've been on the field ever since they were freshmen and sophomores. We've got a bunch of guys that have a lot of experience. There's guys in the sophomore class, that were freshmen last year, that's going to step up and play big roles for us. We're returning nine starters on offense. We're returning eight or nine on defense. It's not all the same guys, and we have some really good young guys coming up as well."

He continued, "Our team looks good on paper, and there's a lot of excitement for the possibility and potential for what this team can accomplish. We keep that in mind as far as our everyday grind. We just focus on what we can control right now."

Senior Axel Aldino will be returning as this year's quarterback, in his third year as a starter. Coach Trapp said he wants his team to continue where they left off last season. "Halfway through the year, last year, not only him, but our team just clicked. We had some really good football towards the end, and was able to accomplish some things that have never been accomplished here before. We should have a good season."