Macomb Today

When the high school football season starts this year in Michigan, it will be anything but business as usual, said Scott Merchant, head football coach of Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township.

With COVID-19, everyone, even the coaches, are taking a wait-and-see approach, Merchant said. The coach would not make a prediction on how the season will go.

“I go back and forth, just like everybody else does,” Merchant said in an interview on the Frank Beckmann Show. “The news changes so rapidly and everything is so fluid. All we’re trying to do right now is focus on what we’re allowed to do, which basically is conditioning-type drills. Our kids are getting in good shape, so at the very least, if we can’t do seven-on-sevens, which we haven't been able to do, or we can't have any camps or do any of that, until the season starts, so be it. Our kids will be in shape."

Keeping the players safe is the top priority, Merchant said. During summer workouts, Merchant’s team has observed strict safety protocols.

“Every single coach, every trainer, every player gets their temperature taken and that gets logged,” he told Beckmann. “If it goes over a certain number, we retake it and then if stays over that, we have to pull that athlete aside and we have emergency contact info, and we immediately call the parents and they have to come pick the athlete up.”

Players have to fill out questionnaires on COVID-19 and possible symptoms. “If any of those questions are 'yes,' they are not allowed to work out,” said Merchant.

Equipment is constantly wiped down and sanitized and the team uses fewer pieces of equipment in workouts than they have in the past.

“This is a very extensive process that goes on every day with every single athlete at our school,” he told Beckmann. “With all the precautions we are taking, hopefully we can have a season. But the No. 1 thing is we want is it to be done safely, and if it can't be done safely, then it shouldn't be done.”