Three months later, Jim Duprey remains largely in the dark.
Earlier this week, Western New York entered Phase 2 of the reopening process amid the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for a wider range of businesses to reopen, including hair salons and outdoor seating at restaurants. Schools and accompanying activities, such as sports, however, are part of Phase 4 of that plan.
That means it’ll be at least another three-plus weeks before his Pioneer football team is able to congregate in person in any capacity. And even then, it’ll presumably have to follow another three-phase subset of guidelines established by the National Federation of State High School Associations before it can return to its normal routine.
And so, as the rest of the state begins to inch back to some sense of normalcy, local high school football coaches continue to wait.
“Like most of the coaches in the area, we’re getting very little information,” he said in a phone interview Thursday, “but we’ve been looking at the handbook (released by Section 6) on the recommendations for reopening sports. And looking at some of these guidelines they’re proposing, I don’t know how we’re going to do it. They’re proposing things like standing six feet apart on the sideline, wearing masks in practice; you have to have lockers six feet apart.”
Framing it thusly, he added: “There are (three) phases in the reopening of practices for interscholastic sports, and we have to get to Phase 4 of New York State before we can get to Phase 1 of that … if that makes any sense to you at all.”
PIONEER HAS been among the best Big 30 teams in the last five years, going 27-10 (including a 16-3 mark in the last two campaigns) with two trips to the Class B semifinals or further.
Its success in late October, Duprey maintains, stems from the work his team puts in over the summer.
The Panthers have as regimented an offseason program as any team in the area. It’s likely, however, that given how long it will be before Pioneer can take the field in full or compete in large group settings, much (or all) of that will be wiped out during these particular summer months.
Where does that leave the Panthers in terms of building for 2020?
“It leaves us very, very far behind,” Duprey acknowledged, “and it’ll be interesting to see what the product will be when we return. We always have a really aggressive summer program where we open the weight room three nights a week and we train together as a team at a local facility. We go to at least six 7-on-7 tournaments. We do a lot, and I don’t know that we’ll be able to do any of that.”
Rather than dwell on what is being lost, though (with the spring season coming to what would have essentially been the end this weekend, he’d likely have gotten football activities started soon), he’s beginning to look ahead.
“We all just have to start thinking about how we would re-integrate,” said Duprey, the Big 30’s second longest-tenured coach (behind Cattaraugus-Little Valley’s Tim Miller), who’s now 87-73 across 18 seasons. “They’re talking about bringing kids in small group pods in the weight room and keeping them six feet apart. So as soon as we’re able to do things, we’re going to try to do things.
What that’s going to look like, I don’t know, but we just want to do it safely. That’s the most important thing of all. We don’t want to go jumping the gun and violate anything, or more importantly, get anyone sick.”
DUPREY SAID he’s been in “constant communication” with his players since school was closed and lockdown orders began in mid-March.
His aim has been to not only keep his kids active, but also “positive and upbeat” as they’ve dealt with the abrupt end to attending school in person and the total upheaval of their regular routines.
Now more than ever, he noted, it’s going to be important for kids across all sports to be willing to put in the work from home.
“(We’ve been) sending workouts home, trying to do challenges with the team, whether it’s pushups, situps, whatever it happens to be,” Duprey said. “We’re trying to get the kids to do as much on their own as they can by giving them guidance. It’s hard to do; self-motivation is a difficult thing to learn. But I think during this summer, self-motivation is going to be pretty key.”
The standstill continues to be a challenge, he said. But whether it’s in late June, early July or later that his team can come together again, Pioneer will be ready.
“You just feel useless, you feel like you’re not doing your job almost,” Duprey said. “It’s hard, because everyone’s antsy to get back to quote-unquote normal, but you also have to be smart and you have to try to follow the rules.
“We’re going to do the best we can, and as soon as we’re able to get out and start to work … we’re going to get out there and get after it as soon as we’re able to.”
