One week from first night of football... can we make it?

This world is surreal. When my favorite professor at Rhode Island College showed me the world depicted by Giogio Di Chirico I found them to be more psychological than real. 30 years later I'm stnding on a football field during camp and I looked at masked coaches telling their players on the sidelines to stand, kneel or whatever they want, but do it six-feet apart at minimum. Those paintings of Di Chirco were not that farfetched all of a sudden.

Oil City coach Dan York reminded his players several times of the team mandate to socially distance when not on the field playing. 

York is happy that his kids are able to play, not just because he's a football coach and loves the sport, but he knows how important it is for his players to be able to have a normal high school sports experience. How important it is to play.

York and the Oilers are gearing up to begin their shortened season against Route 8 rival Franklin next Friday at the Knight's field. Franklin will have a new look with first year head coach Matt Turk.

"We don't even know what they run," York said as he he prepares his team to run his program and what they know best. 

York's Oil City squad has had a two year run of pretty solid play winning the districts both years. They have a solid program with many returning players. Last year they still managed to win the district without star Christian Cole and this year they hope to do the same after losing Noah Petro to graduation. They just seem to reload. Last year they moved into the state playoffs and only lost to a high school that looked more like a division II college than a high school squad.

York, Friday admitted this squad could be better, but, that is an old coach giving a standard answer.
I had asked a volleyball coach at Maplewood this question years ago and got the same response. That squad won a state championship.

Today, this camp had a laid back, but maintained a systematic look to it as they geared up for Saturday's scrimmage. No yelling. Just running plays to see where improvements can be made. Quarterback Holden Stahl tossed a few wide outs and a deep end-zone pass right on the money. He led one receiver a tad too much on another play, but it appeared there was a breakdown in the line. The coaches quickly addressed that and moved on to the next play. 

The first games of the season will be interesting to say the least. No one is quite sure how the band, cheerleaders, teams, officials and so on will quite work into the numbers or ho many spectators or press are even allowed.

​On Thursday Gov. Wolf announced he was lifting the ban on spectators, but the numbers need to be controlled. This puts families in a precarious spot, they want to see their kids play, but if they force the issue they might risk their kid's season altogether.

A couple games elsewhere had to be shutdown recently because parents stormed the stadiums and refused to leave.

It remains to be seen what will happen in northwest Pennsylvania, but as of now most of the games will commence on September 11 and each team has a six-game localized schedule that could be subject to change. Titusville, who had planned to host Warren, has now recruited Meadville for it's first game since Warren had a player test positive and has elected to postpone the start of their season by a week.

​These kind of changes may be likely all season long.

​But for now they prepare to play.