After a year unlike any other, Garland County has one state champion football team and one that finished as runner-up.
Coaches all over the state and country had to battle with the new restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Arkansas managed a full football season, complete with state championship games at all levels.
"From the very beginning of June when we are able to get together, it was different from day one -- the way we work out, having to, you know, separate our kids, and really not able to get into the weight room the way we normally would do," said Lakeside head coach Jared McBride. "We ended up kind of adapting our strength and conditioning program to be more outside-based and more spread out. So that was the beginning of the change for us. And then it rolls into August practice of, you know, limiting meeting times and locations and the amount of time that you spend with the kids off the field. You know, watching film and in the classroom setting was drastically reduced each day to just kind of essential time. And so that was another major thing for us."
With the pandemic shutting down schools in March, the standard spring football process was completely eliminated as were any kinds of practice or weight training until June.
"The first blow was to miss spring football," recalled Fountain Lake head coach Kenny Shelton. "You know, and then for us, especially, you know, hiring, you know, four new coaches, and, you know, not have an opportunity to kind of start meshing early with spring ball, and then, you know, missing the whole month of June not getting to do any 7-on-7 or team camps."
While teams like Fountain Lake and Lake Hamilton do not use pass-heavy offenses that benefit most from 7-on-7 camps, Shelton said that those summer camps allow their teams to come together and jell before the start of the season.
"Of course, I know everybody was in the same boat, but especially for us, you know, with all the change that we've had and, you know, different coaches, some different philosophies. ... That's when you start to jell as a team and as a coaching staff, and, you know, we didn't get the opportunity to do that," he said.
Mountain Pine, which finished out the season with its first state football title in 41 years and third overall, came close to missing the entire postseason after losing three games due to players quarantining.
"It just seemed like every day, it was something different, you know, whether it be a student, athlete or coach," said Red Devils head coach Sam Counce. "We'd walk in the door, you know, it seemed like we were just getting bad news all the time. In the end, guess one of our biggest problems was trying to shuffle the schedule around to accommodate everybody, to accommodate us and who we were trying to play. That made it tough because, you know, we had to decide what games were important, you know, whether it was a conference game or, you know, a good game that we needed."
Cutter Morning Star head coach Matt Kinsinger had more than just the pandemic to worry about each week. The former Lake Hamilton defensive coordinator was hired in June.
"It can almost appear to be, like, you know, overwhelming to a point. ... Of course, I feel like the Lord used this opportunity to fast track me, you know, on a lot of things my first year as a head coach," he said. "So, you know, I'm really, you know, looking at it from a positive perspective. You know, it presented its challenges, but it also, you know, it really forces you to dig deep and to, you know, overcome an obstacle. You get a chance to monitor to, you know, to show that and model that, you know, to your players."
While a few Garland County schools were forced to cancel games due to either positive tests or contact tracing, Lake Hamilton managed to escape without having to cancel one of its games. Head coach Tommy Gilleran said that even with 87 players on the roster this season, it was a daily concern.
"During football season, you worry about injuries -- just football injuries," he said. "And that's hard enough as it is because, you know, certain injuries can really, you know, hurt a team just based on, you know, who it is. ... But then we also had to worry about the COVID, you know, the trace contact or getting it, but mainly the trace contact. A lot of our, you know, kids could get contact traced and not get to play for two weeks."
One week this season, the Wolves had 30 players unavailable due to being in quarantine.
"That was probably the hardest week because we have a lot of those kids out, and, you know, not many starters," he recalled. "I only had three starters out. ... Of course we're going to play because we've got 57 other kids that are ready to play, and so we're gonna play. You know, if we had like, let's say my whole running backs, all the running backs, then it would have changed."
McBride said that the Rams varsity team was mostly unaffected until late in the season.
"It didn't affect our varsity team until the very end of the year, in our last two ballgames," he said. "We had some key players that weren't with us. But, you know, we worked hard to keep them as well as we could, just to keep them, you know, doing the things they were supposed to do, and overall, I think we did a good job of just, you know, helping them realize the importance of being a good teammate and a good member of the community and trying to do what was right."
Kinsinger said that someone told him that if he could make it through this past season, he should be able to handle any season as a head coach.
"I'll take that as a positive as well," he said. "I know they're not going to be easy, but but I know that, like I said, I feel tested and had an opportunity to exercise, you know, things that I may not have in the past. So for me, you know, as a new head coach during a pandemic -- yeah, it was tough. It was very difficult, but, you know, just just one of those opportunities to grow, and I was thankful for the chances to be able to do that, and hopefully it'll make me a better coach next year."
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