While Charlotte waits for high school football practice, Weddington takes a head start
Every Wednesday, 12 members of the state championship football team at Weddington High School have a virtual Bible study.
The players usually share verses and discuss them, but last week, everybody just wanted to talk about Monday — that’s when Union County was finally going to allow its high school football teams to begin summer workouts.
Sure enough, there were plenty of smiles to go around Monday morning.
“It was so awesome seeing these kids bright and early and seeing how energetic they were,” Weddington coach Andy Capone said. “It was really refreshing.”
The N.C. High School Athletic Association ruled that teams could begin June 15 and some in the Observer’s coverage area did, including schools in Lincoln County. But Union County, like Charlotte-Mecklenburg, decided to wait until July 6 due to concerns around coronavirus cases.
Last week, CMS, Wake and Cabarrus County were among systems that decided to delay again. Cabarrus will begin July 20. CMS and Wake have not announced new dates.
AL Brown football coach Mike Newsome told the Observer that his school, which plays in a league with Cabarrus County Schools but is not part of the system, decided late Sunday to postpone Monday’s start date. The school will meet this week to determine a new timeline.
“We thought with the uptick in (coronavirus) numbers, we would push back the workouts,” Newsome said. “We have been having virtual meetings with kids and giving them workouts to do and we’ve had around 100 kids every day. We give them a workout to do and ask them to film a portion and send it back. Not all of them do, but we get plenty, and we felt like, with the restrictions we’d have, working out here at school right now would be a watered down version of what they would do on their own.”
NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker told The Observer on Monday that she estimates only about 20% of more than 400 member schools are participating in these voluntary workouts.
She said the association planned to survey member schools Tuesday morning to find out specifically who has started and gather starting dates for those that have not.
But in Union County, Monday was the official start of what everyone hopes is the 2020 football season.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Weddington senior lineman William Owens. “We’ve been having to work by ourselves for a few months now and it feels good to finally have organized activities back. We’ve been pretty couped up. I haven’t worked with the offensive line in a long time, basically since states (last December).”
The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shut down in March; Weddington players didn’t get any weight training or spring workouts. They’ve been taking classes remotely, working out on their own and just hoping they will be able to play.
They’ve already watched classmates who play spring sports like baseball and softball lose a season to the pandemic. Owens said he prays it won’t happen this fall.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Owens said. “I wouldn’t want to be Debby Downer, but I think we’re going to be fine.”
The workouts Monday featured groups of players in pods spread out among several fields on campus. Players remain in their same pods and don’t cross-mingle. Weddington has 105 players working out in two separate sessions, which are 90 minutes each. Each players’ water bottle and book bag was socially distanced.
“They’re not doing all the things they might normally be doing at this time of year, but it creates some normalcy having them back with their friends, their teammates, their coaches,” said Union County director of athletics Nelson Garner, who watched part of Monday’s workout. “And it’s just a little bit of a morale boost.”
Weddington star Will Shipley couldn’t sleep Sunday night. He finally got up at 5:30 a.m. Monday and was at school at 8 a.m., 45 minutes before workouts began. He sat in his car, listening to music, raring to go.
A five-star recruit heading to Clemson, Shipley, a running back, wore bright orange cleats to practice to match the primary color of his future team. He also wore about 10 pounds of new muscle. Shipley is 6-foot, 205 pounds now, and he wants to have a shot at winning a third straight state championship.
“It’s awesome to be back out here with the guys,” he said, “and get ready for the season. It’s a very big relief, just to be out here with the social interaction.”
With some states talking about moving high school football to the spring, Shipley said he hasn’t thought much about not graduating early in December if North Carolina did that. He’s focused on playing this fall.
Owens, his teammate, just hopes Weddington — and all N.C. schools — are allowed to play, whenever that may be.
Not having a season, he said, “would be pretty terrible. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. It would be saddening for a lot of us. It’s our last year and there’s a lot of guys still trying to pick up offers and play at the next level. So it would be really disheartening for a bunch of those guys, but we’re all trying to stay positive about it.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 5:21 PM.
