For the past five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, high school sports and activities have been for the most part nonexistent.

State tournaments were cancelled for winter sports and spring sports never got the chance to even start their seasons.

After waiting and wondering, it is with much pleasure to say that sports are back!

It has not been easy the past five months to get ready for what is sure to be a wild, unprecedented season, but area schools have done their best to stay active and now be ready to go when week one of the high school football season rolls around.

If there is one good thing that has come from this pandemic it is that student-athletes are now realizing how quickly sports can be taken away from them and nothing can be taken for granted.

Corey Thomas, ACCHS Head Coach noted, “Some of our kids that normally haven’t shown up for weights or summer workout have been because with everything going on they realize how fast everything can be taken away which is great.”

For the most part schools have been able to spend their summer workouts as close to as normal as possible which is great for a team like Nemaha Central who is fresh off winning a state title.

“We had kids that were looking forward to the spring sports that never got the opportunity so now that we have been able to work out attendance has been up because our kids see it as an outlet to get out and finally do something,” said Warren Seitz, Thunder Head Coach.

There are still plenty of question marks as to what will happen during the 2020 season but the fact that football has a chance to play is all that matters to Troy Head Coach Derek Jasper.

“We don’t care if we go 9-0 or 0-9 as long as we get to play some football and have a full schedule,” Jasper said.

That is the sentiment of all head coaches and people association with fall sports, whatever happens during the season will happen but for right now the best part is that on Friday, September 4, football will be back!