Sumter School District adjusting as rain wipes out first week of practice

This week was supposed to be the first full week of practice for the football teams in the Sumter School District. All three schools were able to practice on Friday, but the rhythms of the season were going to be established this week, as schools geared up for scrimmages on Thursday and Friday.

Mother Nature had other plans.

As Tropical Storm Debby started to pick up, the school district got ahead of the ball. On Monday, it was announced that the district would go into eLearning on Tuesday and Wednesday, at least. That meant no football practice. That also led to the delay or cancellation of scrimmages later in the week. Some, such as Sumter High's matchup with Fort Dorchester, are tentatively moved to Monday, Aug. 12. But Lakewood already had another scrimmage set for next Monday, so their scrimmage at Lamar had to be cancelled.

Teams spent Monday trying to make the most out of their time. Practices were capped at 6 p.m., so they didn't have a ton of time to work. Lakewood did not practice, while Crestwood and Sumter each got about an hour and a half of work in before needing to call it a day.

While it wasn't ideal, coaches across the county are rolling with the punches.

"In today's times, with all the stuff we do over the summer, we're a lot more prepared now than we used to be. Our players know what to do, we think fundamentally we're in pretty good shape. Earlier in my career, this would've bothered me a whole lot more than it's going to bother me this week," Sumter High head coach Mark Barnes said. "Obviously, when you get shoulder pads and helmets on, football gets a little more realistic, but we don't do a lot of hitting in practice either way. That's why the scrimmages really do have value to us. That will be our first real contact day.

"But I learned a long time ago that I can't control what's happening, so I'm just going to plan for what happens and deal with it from there."

Crestwood's Roosevelt Nelson sang a similar tune during their practice on Monday.

"The biggest thing is taking advantage of the day we've got today. You can't control the weather, so we'll control what we can control. We can control that we're out here working today to get better," Nelson said. "It's good to be back out and moving around. We've been doing a lot of the same stuff over the summer, but now it's official on the date. We're excited about where we're at right now, excited about the new pieces that will be showcased on Friday night. We're ready to kick off."

Lakewood head coach Willie Offord had that same mindset of controlling what you can control.

"Hopefully we can get back out there Thursday and Friday to get a few days of practice time. If not, it is what it is, we'll just have to make the necessary adjustment," Offord said. "We were looking forward to progressing a little bit more this week, but it's like I told the kids, this type of thing is out of our control. We can only control what we can control. But whenever we're able to convene to come back together, it should be business as usual."

The biggest loss this week is missing out on the chance to get players into the regular rhythm of the season. All summer, practices have typically been early in the morning or later in the evening to avoid the heat, so it can be an adjustment to transition back to going to school every day with practice in the afternoon.

"It kinda disrupts things a little bit, especially with school starting so soon," Offord said. "What's helping us out is that the second part of the summer, we actually went later in the evenings so the kids are acclimated to that time frame."

Over at Sumter High, Barnes will lean on the experience of his team. While they've got their fair share of young bucks, many of those players saw the field last season, so that adjustment shouldn't be as jarring. That being said, the sport gets a lot different once the heat really cranks up at fall practice.

"We've got enough experienced guys," Barnes said. "Our first real test will be practicing after school and it's hot, how we handle that. Because we protect them a little bit from that in the summer. This stuff with the storm, it is what it is."

Each school is taking a different approach this week. Crestwood and Lakewood are staying plugged in with their players to keep them in some sort of routine with virtual meetings or activities. Sumter isn't doing anything in particular as far as workouts are concerned, but Barnes stressed the need to remain connected with their players this week.

"The only thing we did do today is make sure all of our players had our coaches' numbers and coaches had the players' numbers in case they needed something," he said. "The last time we had a flood here, it was pretty bad. If it gets to that point, we want them to be able to access us so we can be some help to them."

The biggest question now is when they'll return to the field. All three teams need to get some additional practice time in before taking part in any scrimmages. Additionally, there must be at least three days in between scrimmages, so any scrimmages scheduled for Monday can't be delayed or they will get in the way of Friday scrimmages.

Regardless of what happens, everyone is in the same boat. Coaches can at least find a bit of solace in knowing that their teams aren't behind anyone else during statewide issues like a tropical storm.

"Yeah, everyone is going through it," Nelson said. "You also hope that you had a good summer, had a good spring and we'll be able to stack those days up, so not being out here a couple of days won't have a huge effect on us."

Of course, all three coaches just want to be out there getting better every day.

"We're in the mindset where we're only going to worry about what we're doing at Lakewood," Offord said. "We're not looking at our schedule to see who's going and who isn't, we're going to focus on what we've got going on at Lakewood. Our kids are buying into that mindset, as well. Are they upset we're not practicing? Sure. But they understand what's going on and what's at stake."