#FindAWay. How a NC high school football coach is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic
Richmond Senior High School was on spring break last week, but that doesn’t mean much for Raiders football coach Bryan Till.
He was trying to sell his house and he was still trying to meet with college coaches, to get his players recruited, and this would normally be a time when on campus recruiting visits would be going on. The coronavirus pandemic has closed N.C. schools and forced coaches like Till to become creative.
Last Tuesday, Till was at home, getting ready to meet with some construction workers about having concrete poured at his house, and planning a virtual workout for his players, where he uses most anything he has laying around to help his players stay in shape.
“It’s been extremely different,” Till said. “A lot of virtual learning. Our kids are working out on their own. They’ve got to be motivated themselves to do that, so we’re posting as many different things as possible.”
With the hashtag “FindAWay,” Till posts almost daily alternate workouts for his players on Twitter.
Last Tuesday, he was out in his driveway, using cinderblocks and wheel barrows to simulate things his players can do without weights that will help maintain and build strength.
The spring is a big time for physical conditioning and Till knows that missing more than a month of school, so far, can be very detrimental to any player who chooses to spend too much time on the couch.
To keep the players’ minds engaged, Till and the Richmond coaches meet with different portions of the team via Zoom several times per week. They use a computer program that allows them to go over plays and responsibilities for the upcoming season via a shared screen.
“The (normal) school day, you know what it is, 7-3:30,” Till said. “Every day right now you have to look at your schedule and go ‘Here’s the differences and all the moving parts.’ You’re juggling all those balls in the air.”
▪ By mid Tuesday afternoon, Till returns from taking his 8-month-old daughter, Brynley, for walk in her stroller. But his break won’t last too long.
He’s got Zoom meetings with staff and college coaches. With school out he’s got more time to pack boxes and clean up for the impending move. A big storm blew through Rockingham Monday and it knocked out power and dropped trees. Till’s house, and precious internet connection, were not affected.
And that is something he said he really needs right now.
He knows how important it is to keep his team together. He knows that, for many of them, playing the sport is the gateway to graduation -- for a job or for college.
“That is a huge concern we have,” Till said of losing players during the pandemic once they get away from a school-then-practice routine. “Those kids are also having an impact on each other and they’re not seeing each other. So all of those positive impacts, we’re losing out of some of those things. Football is such a large group of kids. I’m not concerned we lose them long term but I’m concerned with the positive impacts that give them a chance to go to college, give them a chance to get that job later on. We haven’t had those months (together) that add up to those impacts.”
