MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When there’s no game in sight, practicing might seem like you’re going through the motions just for the sake of going through the motions. This is something new Morgantown coach Sean Biser is noticing among his team, and from his position he completely understands it.
“It’s kind of the old adage: How long can you dangle a carrot in front of a horse to keep it moving forward? Honestly, getting back was the first step,” Biser said. “We’ve been practicing as close to a real practice as we can: We’ve been improving fundamentals and of course for us, with a newly installed offense, there’s all of that. But there’s only so much you can do without hitting or the face-to-face stuff. We’ve been telling them, ‘Let’s prepare like we have a game Friday night, and if something happens and we’re able to play we’ll be ready.’ Even that, like [Wednesday night] our practice was pretty good, but at some points, it lagged a little bit. You can see it. They feel like sometimes they’re going through the motions just to go through the motions without any hope of really playing.”
In Sabraton, Trinity Christian coach Chris Simpson has some similar concerns but his athletes are still motivated for the most part due to the logistic work general manager Mike Teets has been doing to prepare the team.
“Everything is about constant improvement with us. Even though we don’t have the idea of a game, we have a great general manager in Mike Teets. We always have three different opportunities depending on what the color could be for the week. That keeps the guys moving and motivated. They’re motivated that the numbers have been really trending well in our favor – we’re estimating by our numbers that we should be to gold or yellow status by Saturday according to the 5% rule. Every week, it sounds mundane, but we’re continuously chugging along and keeping them in the best shape as we can so when the time comes we’re ready to perform.”
While there are some bumps in the road moving forward, like not knowing when the next game will take place, both teams and their respective coaching staffs can agree on one thing: It’s nice to be back.
“It’s been awesome to be back with the kids and be practicing,” Biser said. “That two-week period where we didn’t have contact or anything was just awful. We worked hard to get to that point, saw some improvement just coming off that scrimmage and we’re getting ready for our game – I thought we were in a pretty good spot for our first game – and then to have that rug pulled out was a pretty awful feeling. But to get back with them was exciting.”
“We’re trying to focus on what we can control at the moment,” Simpson said. “Right now we’re going over the small techniques, play calls, signaling in, all the things you don’t get to work on that now you can pay a little closer attention to the details.”
While Monongalia County’s numbers are fluctuating in the orange every day, and with West Virginia University moving to in-person classes starting on Monday, both groups are hoping the numbers continue to trend downward. Should the county dip into the gold designation – which would mean teams could play other in-county teams or teams from other gold counties – there’s already plans on who they will go after to get in a regular-season game.
In other words, big-ticket rivalry games could come early. While Simpson noted that his staff has been in contact with Clay-Battelle should play become available, Biser is ready to play anybody at this point, although University makes the most sense to him.
“There’s been a lot of discussions about any option you can think of,” Biser said. “To me, playing University makes the most sense because we’ve both had the same time off, are both in the same situation, we’re close, heck we’d play Clay-Battelle. We don’t care – I’m serious, we’d play anybody right now just because all those teams are on the same field. Now, let’s say a team in gold has three games under its belt, that makes it tough. That’s a distinct advantage for them. We’ve been searching high and low. We’re playing all our options.”
Should the numbers rise again for any reason, both coaches are still taking in the time they have now with their kids. Biser specifically noted the toll this situation has taken on the mental health of some of his players, saying he can read it on them.
“We’ve been trying to love our kids and have them be prepared. I hope everyone out there in those decision making positions understand the effect of being out mentally [has] on our kids. I hope the people at the state level see that and do what’s right. We need to play.
“They hide it pretty well when they’re with you, but like even my son, he’s just like, ‘Dad, I want to play. I want to go to school.’ We’re lifting and running and doing everything we’ve supposed to, and they’re seeing all these other kids playing. I don’t know why we can’t go virtual with sports. If it works in other places, why can’t we do it here? We’re in a more controlled environment, give our kids some hope and some sense of normalcy.”
At the time of this publishing, COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in Mon County were 19.21.
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