The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association announced that there will be no more high school contact sports until Governor Bill Lee lifts his executive order for a state of emergency. The sports that are affected by this include basketball, wrestling, girl’s soccer, 7-on-7 football, and football.
KWAM spoke with First Assembly Christian School head coach Chris Schuetz about his team is handling the decision. He says that teams have been conducting non-contact conditioning practices during the summer and include things such as sprinting while being spread out. The TSSAA specifically bans contact practices, scrimmages and games.“The biggest adjustment as a strength coach,” Schuetz says, “is having to adjust to those types of requirements. You can’t have the guys do contact drills, which for football is more like a one-on-one.”
They were set to start up regular practices at the end of July, but that now is postponed to at least the end of August, which is when Gov. Lee’s order expires. There have even been talks to possibly flip flop the baseball and football season, Schuetz adds.
