Fairhart, Gig Harbor football hope for full return in February
Among the many changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought in the year 2020, high school sports has faced their fair share of shakeups as well.
In the current climate, there are few sports being played and practiced to ensure safety against spreading the coronavirus.
One of the fall sports that would traditionally be in full swing would be football. However, with the concern that there would be an outbreak with the high level of contact, football has been moved to a new time of year.
“It’s been strange, that’s for sure. I’m glad the [Washington Interscholastic Activities Association] was able to reschedule in February,” said Gig Harbor High School football coach George Fairhart. “Football in February is better than no football at all. I just hope the COVID numbers come down to a place where we can actually get to play.”
The current restructure of the sports calendar has all the athletics split into four seasons rather than three, with a cut down on how many games and matches will be played as well.
As it stands right now, the WIAA would allow football practices to begin on Feb. 17, which falls into the third season of the year. That would allow for games to begin the same week as the other season three sports as well.
“The WIAA said that we have to get to a different phase, I think we are still in phase two in Pierce County,” Fairhart said. “We’ve got to get to phase four at least, so we still have a ways to go. That would be the first step, then we would have to deal with the contact stuff. We can figure all those things out.”
Fairhart is hopeful that football will be able to make it back as this past offseason has been one of the strangest that he’s ever experienced. Having spent a lifetime coaching and playing football, this year was the first in a long time that he was not conducting any sort of activity with players.
However, that doesn’t stop him and his team from wanting to get out and condition and practice. What is stopping the Tides, however, is the uncertainty on exactly how they can keep players safe from the disease.
“I know that some other states are playing, like Idaho, but the states are different and our state is nothing like some of those states. And our numbers are quite a bit higher,” he said. “We’ll see what they do and we’ll try to learn from [other states]. They’ll go through a season and we will look and see how they handled it, things they did and we will try to do the things that were successful.”
One of Fairhart’s beliefs is that football is a sport that can and will help players build character and teamwork when playing.
And what could be a bigger character building moment for his players than having to wait patiently for the season to start in an odd time of year.
“They want to get out there and play, they want to be out there with their friends, but we can’t right now,” Fairhart said. “So we will keep our eye on February and hope that things will get better so we can do all those things.”
Despite there not being any official practices for the Tides, the coaching staff is still trying to keep the players in shape through any form of conditioning they can.
In fact, Fairhart and the coaches were planning on ramping that up by getting the players out in safe, socially distant conditioning practices. But they cannot now as another obstacle has gotten in the way in the form of the smoky air that’s blanketed Western Washington.
“We sent out workouts for our kids, we were going to try to start some general conditioning, but now the air quality is an issue,” he said. “It’s just another thing in a real strange year. We hope it will rain or clear up so we can at least get together and do some socially distant conditioning.”
February is a long ways away for the Tides to work out any kinks they face when trying to adjust for social distant coaching and practicing.
Even though this is a prominent high school program, there still isn’t the level of resources the Tides can have like the University of Washington or Seattle Seahawks’ football teams.
“I’m keeping an eye on what other people are doing, so when we get to that point I’ll have a better idea on how we want to proceed,” Fairhart said. “So obviously we are going to follow whatever guidelines the WIAA puts out, the school district puts out, we’ll follow all the guidelines.”
It’s just one thing after another for everyone in the area and the Tides are no exception. Yet, Fairhart remains optimistic that if things are done correctly and the counties can reach phase four, then there will be football to be played.
Even if there is a cut down on the games that can and will be played, some games are better than no games.
“At least putting a target out there in February is better than saying we are not going to play at all,” he said. “Whatever we can do get some games in, that’s okay. I just want to have the chance to get our kids together, prepare for teams, play some games and to have that experience.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 6:00 AM.