By Julie D’Aloiso
I asked nordonia football coach Jeff Fox a few questions about what changes they are having to make. Here is his response:
Nordonia Football Family,
Thank you for your patience as we clarify what will be happening in the coming weeks. On Thursday, the governor’s office suddenly decided for school sports “skills training” to resume on Tuesday, May 26th. However, details of this process were left to local boards of health, the OHSAA, individual school districts, and then the governing bodies of each individual sport. The last 30 hours have been very chaotic but I can finally deliver a bit of news.
Our school leadership met this morning, and as you heard on Dr. Clark’s all-call, decided how facilities will be reopened. Our leadership team, led by Athletic Director, Rob Eckenrode, has interpreted the suggestions from the State of Ohio, the NFHS (the national high school sports governing body,) and the OHSAA. We have preliminary plans in place to have our first in-person training on Monday, June 1st but we still do not have all details of what this will look like. I have been in contact with coaches all over the state today and the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association has another meeting to clarify more with the OHSAA tomorrow, Saturday morning. Trainer Dom Ramicone and I will be in a virtual meeting with the Ohio High School Strength and Conditioning Association to discuss best practice on Sunday night. Mr. Eckenrode will lead a virtual meeting again on Tuesday afternoon with our entire Nordonia athletic department. Your football coaching staff will then have our staff meeting on Tuesday night. I’m excited about our plan of return but my goal is to communicate the details of our plan to all of you at some point on Wednesday, May 27th. Next week, virtual position meetings will continue and I encourage you to follow the strength and conditioning packet distributed last week.
When we do resume in-person activities, please understand that all summer activities are voluntary. Different families will have different levels of comfort and we support whatever you choose to expose your son to as we return to in-person activities. I can assure you that your coaching staff is working to be as detailed as possible in preparing best practice for our student-athletes’ health on two fronts: disease prevention and sports injury prevention after a long layoff.
I’m excited to see all of you soon and get back to work.
