Huntsville City Schools add coronavirus safety precautions for football games

Huntsville City Schools add coronavirus safety precautions for football games

The end of the year.

Today we got a first-hand look at some of the ways huntsville city schools plans to keep students, fans, and athletes safe this football season.

Games kick off in just over 24 hours!

Waay 31's will robinson-smith spoke with coaches and the athletic coordinator about what you need to know ahead of the first games of the year.

The countdown is on at milton frank stadium until the scoreboard lights up and the huntsville high school panthers take the field for the very first time.

Head coach mark fleetwood says it helps to know that everyone is dealing with a strange season.

Mark fleetwood, huntsville high school football coach so really, it's an even playing field here.

Let's try to do it better than anybody else.

And that's sort of been the way that we've talked as a team.

Fleetwood says a lot of what happens on the field will remain the same, but he's been pushing his team to keep safety guidelines in mind when they're on the sidelines and at home.

Mark fleetwood, head football coach, huntsville high school just being really mindful of that is to know where we go when we're away from the practice field is really important.

Who you're hanging with, where they've been, who they've been with.

Huntsville city schools athletics coordinator scott stapler says they're doing what they can to make sure fans are just as safe as the players and coaches come game day.

Scott stapler, athletics coordinator, huntsville city schools trying to make sure we have areas where people aren't forced to congregate because of something we can do.

Maybe we can change the traffic flow one way or the other.

Will robinson-smith one of the ways the school system is making sure people are able to stay socially distant at a game is by marking off where they can sit with duct tape.

They're using the yellow tape to mark where a section begins and each of these pieces of red tape to allow a family to cluster together.

However, they're not marking off the next couple of rows and that allows everyone to have enough space next to them and behind them.

Stapler says there will be placing distancing dots at places like the concession stand.

And restroom attendants will clean those areas frequently.

Meanwhile -- chip english is also preparing the grissom tigers for their first game on thursday.

He says while they work to stay safe in the locker room and on the field -- they need to give everything while they're on the field.

Chip english, head football coach, grissom high school your season could be counted in days and so make every day count.

And the guys have responded well and they have to understand and value each day, whether it be practice or a game.

For both teams on thursday -- practice ends -- game 1 begins.

Reporting in huntsville, will robinson-smith, waay 31