MANSFIELD — Practice may have looked and felt a little different, but Mansfield Senior’s Aveon Grose wasn’t complaining.
A rising junior and one of the top football recruits in the state, Grose joined his teammates at Arlin Field on a steamy Monday afternoon for the first summer workout of what promises to be a season unlike any other. Like most other programs across Ohio, Senior High is slowly and ever-so-cautiously beginning preparations for 2020 even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage.
Almost 2 million people across the country have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. More than 110,000 Americans — enough to fill Arlin Field more than 12 times over — have died from the disease.
Contact sports like football and basketball were allowed to resume modified skills training on May 26 provided coaches and athletic administrators followed social distancing guidelines provided by Gov. Mike DeWine’s office. Mansfield Senior waited until Monday to ensure its mitigation strategy was compliant.
“It’s not the same as my first couple of years, that’s for sure, but it’s most definitely nice to be back. I’ve been missing football,” said Grose, who helped the Tygers reach the Division III state championship game last fall. “The last few months have been really different for everybody. We had to do online school, which was weird, and then the track season was canceled.
“I’m just glad we’re able to get started now.”
Mansfield Senior’s workouts were divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The morning session drew about 35 participants and another 35 or so players attended the afternoon session.
Players were sorted into groups of no more than nine players and each player had his temperature checked before being cleared to participate. Groups were spread out across the complex and no physical contact was permitted. Locker rooms were off-limits and players had to bring their own water bottles as sharing of water is strictly prohibited. Once workouts ended, players were not allowed to loiter at the stadium. Additionally, all of Senior High’s coaches wore face coverings even as the mercury climbed into the mid-80s.
“We’re taking these social distancing guidelines very seriously,” Mansfield Senior coach Chioke Bradley said before the start of Monday’s afternoon session. “The athletic department and our coaching staff understand that this is bigger than football. Our first priority is keeping our kids safe and healthy.”
Offensive coordinator Logan Slavinski and defensive backs coach Ali Grose were among the group of assistants to run Monday’s morning session.
“It’s good to be back and it’s good to see the guys. I haven’t seen them since mid-March,” Slavinski said. “Everybody is ready to try to get back to a sense of normalcy, if that’s even possible.
“We’re about a week later (getting started) than most schools in the area but we wanted to make sure that we did it right and we really looked at all the guidelines and followed them the best we can.”
Players will stay in their groups with the same coaches for the next two weeks.
“It’s a little different right now with the things they set in place because of COVID-19,” said Ali Grose, the father of Aveon and 2020 graduate and Michigan State recruit Angelo Grose. “The kids are picking up on it pretty good. They’re OK with it because most of the time during the season we are in groups. These are just smaller groups than what they are used to.”
Players were put through traditional speed and agility workouts during Monday’s sessions. All the while, trainer Jake Sherer kept a watchful eye over the proceedings.
“We’re doing the best we can given the circumstances. This is all new to us, too,” Sherer said. “We’re limiting the number of players in each group and we’re limiting how much contact each group has with other groups.
“We’ve had no issues this morning with temperature screenings. Everybody checked out. We’re fortunate in that this area hasn’t been hit especially hard by the virus.”
For Mansfield Senior, Monday was the start of a three-phase program established by the Ohio High School Athletic Association in conjunction with Gov. DeWine’s office. The Tygers are scheduled to open the season Aug. 28 at Norwalk, although the OHSAA and state haven’t yet green-lighted the season.
“Nobody knows exactly what to expect,” Bradley said. “We’re going to do everything that is being asked of us and hopefully we’ll be able to play football this fall.”
