(Citynet Statewide Sportsline interview with University head coach John Kelley)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — John Kelley is entering his 34th season as the head football coach at University High School and his 46th season overall as a football coach. There isn’t an in-game coaching scenario that he hasn’t seen.
COVID-19 however has posed challenges previously unseen. And he is now operating from two different playbooks. The first is to get his Hawks ready for the 2020 season. The second, and possibly more important task, is navigating new restrictions for practice and gameday.
“I don’t think there is a group of people, other than the front line workers with this COVID, that have followed the rules, adapted, changed with the guidelines, the edicts and the protocols as well as high school coaches and kids,” Kelley said. “The kids have been magnificent. They just roll with the punches.”
Official preseason training camps are scheduled to open around West Virginia on Monday, August 17. Throughout the entire offseason, teams have had to follow new guidelines regarding the number of athletes participating in a group and what types of practice activities are allowed. With just three weeks until their season opener at Parkersburg South, Kelley says that at some point, the basics of the game need to be put into practice.
“When the offensive line lines up, they are going to be 18 inches apart or 24 inches apart in whatever you use for your line splits. The quarterback is going to have to mesh with the running back. The receivers and going to get hammered by the defensive backs. There is going to be a lot of physicality trying to get off the line. I am not going against any guidance or protocol but that is out the window right then because that is the way the game is played.
“You can’t socially distance and you can’t have a mask on when you are doing this.”
It is expected that the state will release details on a new color-coded system that measures COVID spread in individual counties. That system could determine which counties can take part in extracurricular activities.
“That can change rapidly as soon as the health department calls and says this is how many cases we have. And they use their formula and they say you are shut down. And you may be shut down for three weeks and then they say you can come back and play. I don’t see how that is going to be possible.
“Let’s say there is a big outbreak at one of the dorms or housing units at WVU, let’s say there is a nursing home again with a breakout, and then all of a sudden everything is shut down. And we could be getting ready to go to a game at Parkersburg South and we find out all of a sudden they are in the red or the orange and we can’t play. It is minute-to-minute. You plan for everything and hope for the best.”
Kelley is optimistic that his junior-heavy roster will make improvement after the program’s second losing season in 25 years.
“I will do everything I have to do to give these kids a chance. But it is not in our hands. As coaches, we are control freaks. We like to control every second. We are micro-managers of everything we do. None of this is in our control.
“As soon as you think you have it down and we are rolling, something changes.”