Coaching Staff Working To Keep Players Safe

Coach Poole disinfects benches in between groups

Coach Poole cleans the eating area as one group leaves

Coaches Lawson and Oliver disinfect the locker rooms

Water bottles are assigned to athletes and disinfected in house every night.

Coach Cravey vacuums the weight room

The Georgia High School Association (GHSA) nissued guidance for “Phase 1” of Return to Play for high schools to follow and Jeff Davis High officials are following that guidance.
Athletic Director Roger Metts, Head Coach Lance Helton and medical advisor Dr. Kirk Munsayac took to task immediately to make a safe atmosphere for football workouts to return.
The first phase only allowed workouts and conditioning — no pads, helmets, not even a football. So a schedule had to be concocted to accommodate the GHSA rules of no more than groups of 20 kids and coaches in a gathering at a time, and cleaning and disinfecting not only between each group, but between each player on any use of a workout bench, exercise machine, or a floor mat.
Coach Helton created a schedule of water bottle use where each student athlete had an assigned bottle and those were cleaned in house nightly for next day’s use.
The coaching staff accepted new roles in the system and together worked as a fine oiled machine to create not only a productive conditioning atmosphere, but also one as safe as possible from the threat of COVID infection.
At the beginning of each group session, kids were screened with temperature and symptom checks before being allowed to enter and given a questionnaire regarding exposure to sick people, or travel. Once the athlete passed the screen he was allowed entrance to the field house and could participate. Any suspicious symptoms or exposure, the student was sent home for further examination by their medical provider.
Groups of 18 were trained and worked out by the coaches with no overlap or exposure from one group to the next to minimize the chance of exposure and to perform exercises with proper social distancing. In football, that is not an easy task.
“From what I’m observing around the state, I’d put Roger Metts’ and Lance Helton’s system above any I’ve seen on equal parts effectiveness and safety,” said Dr. Kirk. “And the commitment and work of the entire coaching staff to make this happen shows this group is all in.