BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. – Since the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services color-coded system came out for the state, it was a no brainer that most of the rural counties would fall below the orange designation. For the most part, this has held true, but what seemed – and still seems – to be overlooked were rural high schools within more populated counties.
Like Clay-Battelle.
Pocketed in the western part of Monongalia County, Clay-Battelle has been the unfortunate victim of the one-for-all coding system that has pitted them in the red after a surge of cases at West Virginia University. Players like sophomore Carson Shriver knew the influx of more than 26,000 college students from around the nation and world would lead to Mon County going red, but the reality of losing Game 1 – while on the road to Ohio, nonetheless – still hurt. Now, less than a week into practices after Mon County went orange, players and coaches are still feeling that original burn.
“The kids hadn’t seen each other for about two weeks,” Clay-Battelle coach Ryan Wilson said. “It’s up and down. There’s still that frustration – we’ve talked to the kids and tried to point out life lessons – but we pointed out to take this opportunity and become a better football player. Don’t look at it as there’s nothing here. Overall, I think our kids have handled it as well as they can.
“I think it hits kids in different ways and different days it hits different kids.”
There are other cases of rural counties facing the unfortunate dealings of the color-coded system which has garnered scrutiny since its release, but schools like Clay-Battelle are easily in the worst position. While there is a chance community spread could affect residents of Blacksville should they travel into town, for the most part, the small town is isolated. This sentiment was shared by Wilson who noted that his kids are seeing teams 20 miles down the road playing in similar conditions.
“In the spring they shut down all sports, but that was across the state,” Wilson said. “My kids, in some ways we feel this is a little tougher because the whole state’s not shut down. Our kids have not played a game and didn’t get practice for two weeks, but they can look up the road and Hundred, Valley-Wetzel, Cameron, they have no idea what our kids have gone through. Those kids are playing. Our kids look up and there’s Hundred getting to play football and we’re not. I think that’s a frustrating thing to them.”
Although the frustrations are real, the team is still focusing well. Wilson notes that it’s been slightly up and down, but overall things are OK with the Cee-Bees. To help keep the team upbeat and keep their spirits up is doing something fun before practice each day. Some may remember the summer camp of 2019 when the Cee-Bees coaching staff created a real camp atmosphere with an overnight stay and other activities to help with team bonding, but now they’re playing kickball with a football, doing relay races and football IQ tests among other things. The coaches also have changed up drills to “break it up a little bit.”
“Really, they were doing something different but they were still working on football skills: They were throwing, catching, punting the ball, and a couple of kids showed that maybe they could punt,” Wilson said. “They were having fun with it. We’re just trying to do some things to get their minds thinking something else, I guess.”
At the end of the day, Wilson gives his kids a lot of credit. He sees the toll it has taken on them emotionally and as a coach wants to do everything he can to make this situation as best as he can for them.
“It does get tough for them,” he said. “We [local coaches] are all expressing the same sentiments. It is tough keeping your kids’ eye on the ball whenever we’re not getting to play. It’s been an emotional roller coaster for these kids. We go back to that Friday when we were in our cars headed to the [Bishop Rosecrans] game and were told we can’t play, and then we went to we can’t even practice, you know, again, the roller coaster emotionally these kids have gone through is tough. So I give our kids a lot of credit for still coming in with a positive attitude. That’s the thing I’m really impressed with.”
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