Looking Back and Looking Forward to the High School Football Pod Play:Bring Back the “Bubble”(What’s happening NOW with College Football???)

We posted this plan earlier this Summer, here at GreensboroSports.com and this appears to be the best possible plan, if we are going to have some sort of high school football season, in Guilford County this Fall…

If the NCHSAA fails to come up with a plan, then we can always take our plan and move forward….Why not?

Ask the coaches, they want football in Guilford County, ask the parents, they want football in Guilford County, ask the players, they want football in Guilford County….

We need to enlist the help of former doctors and physicians associated with our local high schools, and see if we can get them to establish some guidelines, that we need to follow to pull off the plan…

Might be tough to strike out on our own, but if it needs to be done, this might be the required/only course of action….Something needs to be done…The calendar screams that we are running out of time
(Maybe plans like this one will put the onus on the NCHSAA to make some sort of concession, for a 2020 Fall Football Season.)

*****Looking at how to get some football going this Fall in Guilford County:*****

Guilford County Bubble/Pod Play Plan for high school football in 2020:
(This looks to be the best plan for high school football in 2020, that we have seen so far.)

**********We have three Pods/Bubbles…..**********

Pod A/Bubble A at Grimsley High School(Jamieson Stadium) with these five schools…
Grimsley, Page, Northwest Guilford, Northern Guilford and Western Guilford…

Pod B/Bubble B at Dudley High School(Tarpley Stadium) with these five schools…
Dudley, Smith, Northeast Guilford, Eastern Guilford, and Southeast Guilford…

Pod C/Bubble C at Simeon Stadium in High Point, with these five schools…High Point Central, High Point Andrews, Southwest Guilford, Ragsdale and Southern Guilford…

You play the high school football games at the three largest stadiums in Guilford County…Plenty of room for Social Distancing…Cap the crowds at 500-600 fans per game…
(Make sure you have STRONG social distancing measures, spread those fans out.)

Start high school football practice the day the kids hope to go back to school(August 17) and begin the games around September 15/the middle of September…

Play a six-game season…You can play the games on Thursdays and Fridays….Two games a week at each Pod/Bubble, and if you have to play every other week, that will give the teams time to be sure they are healthy before their next games…

Start the games September 15 and play just a six-game season and if you have to play the teams in your pod only, so be it, but with the big stadiums, and spreading out the crowds, we should have most of the safety procedures covered….

Any more thoughts on this plan, and if want to call yourself the HOME team each week, call yourself the HOME team, at your Pod/Bubble location…

Pod Play/Bubble High School Football beginning September 15……….

**********No Conference Champions, No State Champions, just Pod Play/Bubble Play high school football in Guilford County, and with this plan, at least we have found a way to get high school football games in for 2020, and we have saved high school football for another season of action…….**********
(For practicality purposes, I guess we could go ahead and determine our Pod Champions for the A, B, and C pods…This is not a form of realignment, this is just a One-Year high school football plan.)**********

++++++++++If we have to, we could just skip the Tackle Football this season and go with Tag/Flag Football, it least with that, we will have something.++++++++++

28 thoughts on “Looking Back and Looking Forward to the High School Football Pod Play:Bring Back the “Bubble”(What’s happening NOW with College Football???)

  1. Here is one state’s approach, which came out on Tuesday…..

    AURORA — The Colorado High School Activities Association has announced its 2020-2021 interscholastic athletics and activities calendar, following months of collaboration with Gov. Jared Polis, the CHSAA Resocialization Task Force, the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, the state’s COVID-19 Response team, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the CHSAA Board of Directors and administrative staff.

    “The health and safety of our student participants, coaches, officials and essential personnel, including volunteers is a primary concern for the return of interscholastic athletics and activities,” said CHSAA Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green. “We are very grateful for the state, health and educational leaders for their shared commitment of a return to these highly beneficial education programs when it is deemed safe for all school communities.”

    Note that the resumption of all activities and athletics are subject to change based upon any changes to national, state or local guidelines.

    The 2020-21 season will be played with a modified sport schedule due to the on-going global pandemic, creating four separate sports seasons during the school year.

    Following a phone call with Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday, Blanford-Green and CHSAA received a final response on the plan it submitted to the state’s COVID response team. This includes the clearance for cross country to begin this fall.

    Due to the restrictive nature of the current state guidelines, and the ability to follow Colorado Department of Education requirements, all contact sports have been moved to a season which will commence later in the calendar, and allow for playoffs and culminating events without creating new conflicts.

    “We would like to thank our member schools and our school communities for their patience as we worked through the many challenges to get to where we are today,” Blanford-Green said.

    The modified calendar splits sports into four seasons, concluding in late June: A, B, C and D

    Dates and plans for non-athletic activities continue to be formulated.

    For specific dates and sports seasons, see the calendar below.

    Each season is approximately seven weeks from start to finish. Sports will have their regular season competition limits reduced. The postseason for each sport will also be shortened, including the number of state qualifiers.

    The following 2020 fall sports will begin as originally scheduled: boys golf began practice on Aug. 3, softball and boys tennis is set to begin on Aug. 10, and cross country on Aug. 12. According to the modified calendar, this is Season A.

    The remaining traditional fall sports are unable to be played under current state health guidelines. These sports are field hockey, football, gymnastics, boys soccer, spirit, unified bowling and girls volleyball.

  2. At this point and time with the lack of leadership and decision making within GCS I would take this scenario.
    With all of our schools behind the 8 ball and still sitting at home it would be a good setup.

    NG has to play all those teams anyways, besides WG and they are BIG $$ games.

    Makes to much sense so you can guarantee GCS would not vote for that. Oh wait have we even started back yet?

  3. BREAKING: Richmond County Schools officials have cleared athletes to start workouts beginning Thursday, Aug. 6.

  4. Let’s all just give the Pod Plan/Bubble a chance/look see….

    It might seem like a group gathered for 7 on 7’s, but it is better than NOTHING, and that is all we have right now, and we don’t have much of that….

  5. Lack of leadership? They have made a decision to postpone activities until they get the necessary information they need.Now whether or not one accepts that sounds more of a personal issue.

  6. This has become one of those situations where if we are going to get this done in the Fall of 2020, we are going to have to try some things…

    Unchartered territory requires unchartered decisions and this might just require us to try and do some things this high school football season, that are out-of-the-box…
    (And that is what we have been up to here.)

    Are others willing to try???

    Are we willing do something that might look a little different on the surface???

    Why not?

    Our high school coaches might just have to band together and become the leaders we need, as we push this process forward…

    I would hope that our Guilford County high school Athletic Directors would be those leaders, but they have a lot more at stake, with more sports than just football on their plate, to worry about right now…

    Could be a very BIG moment in the lives of our high school head football coaches and assistant football coaches right now…

    How bad do they want this thing to happen?

  7. I have submitted this plan to the Guilford County Schools and GCS Athletics and they are looking it over…

    At least we got that far….

    We are trying.

  8. we all. need to chill this is LIFE we talking about that is more important than football
    i can not believe we are having this discussion
    i love football but common man.

  9. I don’t see where all of the fear is coming from…

    We are not going to know what is going, unless we test the waters…

    Let’s put all of the focus on Football, and let’s see what we can do with it…

    If we don’t give this a shot, 2020 will be remembered as “The Year We Gave Up” and we will never know, what might have been…

    Kids’ last year ever of high school football are riding on this decision….For the HS seniors, Class of 2020, this is it…

    What can we do to make this happen???

    Let’s at least see what we can do to make this season happen…

    Are we Crazy?

    Was John Glenn crazy???

  10. Stuart Cramer FB
    @StuartCramerFB

    Just got word that we can start workouts on Monday!!! Players please check Google Classroom! Coach McMillan will be at the fieldhouse from 12-4 on Sat and 12-3 on Sun to pickup/turn in the required paperwork! For please contact Coach McMillan bamcmillan@gaston.k12.nc.us

  11. There are too many people that can be affected by this.
    Yes we are crazy to be so selfish just a different time and we have to be patient

  12. One reason not to go out on your own and do this is because the NCHSAA will never sanction it in any form which also means that there would not be any officials working the games. Second is that the NCHSAA Student-Athlete Catastrophic Insurance Program would not be in place which means that the kids parents would be responsible for any and all injuries regardless of the severity. Last but not least Andy Durham (president and founder of this new league) would bare sole responsibility for all law suits. I am also afraid that us coaches would also be named in the law suit so leave me out of the equation.

  13. With the “Andy Plan” maybe we could get some attorneys backing us up…

    Stuart Albright is now a judge, but we could use his support and knowledge on this subject…

    Kenny Free has a strong legal background and maybe with him no longer being involved with Athletics at the Piedmont Classical School, maybe Kenny could lend us some of his legal support/knowledge….

    Local attorney Jan Pritchett has a background in athletics, and he also is an established local attorney and former assistant District Attorney, and I wish he could step up and give us some legal guidance in this matter…

    Former Northeast Guilford Ram Joel Oakley was looking to retire from active legal work last year, and maybe this might be a good project for him to get involved with in retirement….We could use Joel’s help and Coach Goss, you may remember Joel from back in his days at NEG…

    The legal backing would be a big boost for us, and maybe we could get Dale Moser with the Farm Bureau Insurance Company to help us formulate some sort of affordable insurance plans for our football players…That would/will be a BIG boost going in, knowing we had some sort of insurance plan for our players…

    Plus if get Murphy Wainer Orthopedics, Guilford Orthopedics, Emerge Orthopedics and the other companies that are our county athletics medical providers involved in the process, that would have the medical/training end covered…

    We just need the correct/right types of backing and we can at least look to move forward with this Plan….

    No need to throw in the towels this early in the game, we just need to keep on adjusting our Game Plan and some how get the Guilford County Schools to back us up….

    And if GCS won’t back us up, it may be time to move forward on our own, and Play Ball…..

    We must have a plan(and we do), and we must find some way to make our Plan work…

    If we can get that legal help, then Lord help us and he will, and we will be on our way….

    We need to be able to start/begin practice by August 17 and be ready to play games no later than September 15….

    I will throw this part in for good measure….We will be ready to promote ALL of our games for 2020 here at this website, and we will broadcast any and all games at NO CHARGE to any of the Guilford County High Schools, plus we are prepared to run/operate the GCS Schools 2020 high school football league at NO CHARGE…

    Not a bad breakdown, and not a bad offer….And if others would be willing to help, we would love to have you on board for 2020….

    The wheels are a turning, and the people, they be learning….Right???
    (That is the developmental and educational building process at work, right here before your very eyes.)

  14. Soooo….The MAC and MEAC have postponed all fall sports but Guilford County Schools is supposed to let high school football players compete. Some are making the plea that it is there senior year and that they will lose it but what about the Spring sports athletes last school year??? Are we going to bring them back to get their last hooray as well. Heaven forbid they don’t get to talk about their senior year in high school football while drinking beers on the porch when they are in the mid-40’s. Let’s also not forget that unlike most years, you aren’t making any money at all off of football which does carry the load for many other sports…Actually this year, it would be financially irresponsible to field a football team…unless you are telling me ESPN is going to have TV rights to this foolishness.

  15. @Spencer Dixon @ Andy Durham. I’m not sure either of you exactly knows what being in a “bubble “ means. I suggest you eat h the Seinfeld episode when George Costanza plays Trivial Pusuit with the Bubble boy in upstate NY. Shoutout to Upstate keeping it gangster.

  16. I was thinking “The Bubble” was where you had all of your teams playing their games in the same location, against a group of the same teams…Do not leave your BUBBLE…

    I may have missed something…

    There is speculation that the Power 5 Conferences will sit back and let the other smaller conferences drop their seasons, and then the College Power 5 Conferences will wait and start their seasons in early October and play until the January-February Bowl Season and then in the end, the Power 5 Conference College Football Teams will have the entire college football stage/platform to themselves…

    Football moves the sticks and it can be played…The pros are going to be doing it, and the larger college football schools, Power 5’s are getting ready…

    The high school regular season games will begin the week of August 17 in Georgia and Tennessee…Let’s keep an eye on those states and see how it goes for them…

    I could see GCS beginning high school football in early October and playing until mid-December…Do think it could work if proven to be safe…Let’s keep an eye on the other states’ models….

    Like I was saying, football moves the sticks, and it will be hard to move football out of here..

    But, we do have this news which hit a day or so back…

    Langston Wertz Jr.(Charlotte Observer)
    @langstonwertzjr

    EXCLUSIVE: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will not allow athletics under Plan C remote learning. There likely will be no public school sports this fall in CMS….

    There is an excellent article running right now at Greensboro.com…It is from Allen Johnson and it will be worth your time to read that one today…Check it out now, from Allen Johnson, at the News and Record…www.greensboro.com…It is on the front page..

    We are trying to stay on top of this thing and to keep you overall informed, and up-to-date…

    And again, I’m just saying, “Football Moves The Sticks”….

  17. On a clarification note, I think most of the college football teams are looking to get rolling on September 12, but you may see them push that date back to the first weekend/Saturday in October for safety purposes…

  18. New views:
    Pat Forde
    @ByPatForde

    Sources: Attempts to salvage the fall 2020 college football season are all but over. “It’s gotten to a critical stage,” one told SI. “I think all of us will be meeting with our boards in the coming days. We have work to do that is no fun.”

  19. Trevor Lawrence(Clemson Tigers’ QB)
    @Trevorlawrencee

    People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play. Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid19…..

  20. Tony Barnhart(Mr. College Football)
    @MrCFB

    If The Big Ten pulls the plug this week, will the SEC follow? I say no.

  21. Mark Packer(from the Packer and Durham Show on the ACC Network)
    @MarkPacker

    I’m in favor of the following:
    #WeWantToPlay and the #WeWantToWatchYouPlay….

  22. Ryan Hughes
    @CoachHughes1991

    AAU Tournaments going on up and down the East Coast. Travel baseball being played all over the US.

    But public school coaches can’t be around our kids or workout with them because…..we are incapable of doing it safely?

  23. Brian Hucks
    @bhucks17

    You want a recipe for disaster. Parents working, kids at home doing virtual school, and no extracurricular activities…..

  24. Posting quite a few of these comments, but keeping all of you up-to-date…

    To me, this is BIGGER than “The Earthquake”….

  25. Coach Todd Helms
    @coachtoddhelms

    SCHSL(South Carolina High School League) Appellate Panel voted 6-0 to uphold the Executive Committee’s plan to play Sports this Fall….

    Let’s Go North Carolina……

  26. Bubble or pod whatever decent idea but not realistic boss. If power 5 and college conferences cancel they have multi million dollar budgets DO u really think HS districts can play safely? THey have the money and resources to safely play at local district HS? If schools at home for weeks u want to say ok stay home then come to school for ball later in the day? Good effort though but IT IS OVER too late window is closed and not enopugh money resources to handle it. I want football too but the second a kid get sick or test positive and take it home to his grandma with copd and she dies what are we gonna tell him? SOrry too bad kid we will pray for you ?

  27. If college football goes down, high school football is GONE/DONE….

    The SEC season is not set to begin until September 26…

    So what’s the rush it shut it all down???

    If we use the calendar correctly, we have plenty of time and there is no need to rush to judgement…

    The ACC needs to adjust and move their start of the season back to September 26, instead of the scheduled September 12 start date….

    More news on high school football coming tonight…

    The college teams have been practicing for a few weeks now, and everything appears to be OK…

Comments are closed.