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First phase opens in WV as Morgantown breaks in new turf at Pony Lewis Field

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In most years, the start of offseason conditioning drills for a football program would be just another date on the calendar. With the three-month suspension of any supervised high school sport activities, the atmosphere was a bit different Monday morning at Morgantown High School.

The Mohigans stepped onto the brand new turf at Pony Lewis Field under new head coach Sean Biser for the first time.

“This is a beautiful stadium, a beautiful facility,” Biser said. “We’ve got some great looking kids that have come to work out with us. When that first group came through, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really nice’.”

“You get into education for kids,” said Morgantown Director of Athletics John Bowers. “Just to see kids here and coaches teaching, it is a very welcomed return to some semblance of normalcy.”

Monongalia County gave the green light for their student-athletes to open Phase I of the WVSSAC-approved conditioning workouts this morning. The requirements created a non-traditional setting. All activities including weight lifting were held outdoors. Players and coaches wore face masks whenever possible.

“Do what you’ve got to do so you can do what you want to do,” Biser said. “That is what we’ve got to do so we can have football and play sports. It has been a meticulous process.”

Players work out exclusively in pods of no more than ten people. Those groups will not interact with other groups at any point in the month of June.

“We are trying to put a few seniors with each group, a few juniors and a few sophomores. And then we mix up positions,” Biser said.

While student-athletes have been scattered over the last twelve weeks to work out on their own, Biser says the level of intensity will slowly ramp up. Activity for now is limited to an hour per day.

“We are trying to slow-cook them and not put everything in all at once,” Biser said. “We are just teaching them how we run things, how we get on the line, how we do the basics. We are building slowly to where we get back in the weight room and can do a normal workout, we are good to go.”

All equipment, in session and between sessions, will be sanitized and disinfected.

“We have hand sanitizers at each station,” Bowers said. “Not only are we sanitizing the kids’ hands, we are sanitizing the equipment the kids use. We are also using the social distancing and the masks. If all of those things are taken care of, we should be able to manage.”





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