Almost nothing has been normal about the year 2020.
But Friday night’s game between old rivals Salpointe Catholic and Sierra Vista Buena offered at least a little taste of normalcy in a football season that’s been affected by COVID-19.
Socially-distanced fans sat in the stands on both sides of Ed Doherty Stadium for the first matchup of the season between two Southern Arizona high school football teams, a game that should’ve been played two weeks prior, but was canceled due to a Lancer testing positive for the coronavirus and putting the team into a two-week quarantine.
The two-week timeout didn’t derail Salpointe Catholic and the Lancers handed the Colts their first loss of the season after cruising to a 37-6 win.
“It was terrible. We had over 300 yards of offense and six points to show for it,” said Buena head coach Joe Thomas. “That’s just not good enough. … Thank goodness we didn’t play the Salpointe team from last year or else it would’ve been 100-0.”
But Thomas is a glass-half-full coach. He cherishes the silver lining to every game this season regardless of the outcome, because Buena has been one of three schools — along with Salpointe and Pusch Ridge Christian — in Southern Arizona to actually begin its season in concert with the rest of the state earlier this month.
Buena’s Jadon Steward (72) tackles Salpointe’s Anthony Wilhite during the first half last week. Buena lost 37-6 to the host Lancers and are now 2-1 on the season.
“It’s a privilege to play, especially in 2020. A lot of teams are sitting at home and although we gave a terrible showing, at least we had an opportunity for a terrible showing. … You just never know. They could shut things down tomorrow,” Thomas said.
Pima County’s latest benchmark metrics recommended teams to postpone competition and practice if the county didn’t have 10 or fewer positive cases for COVID-19 per 100,000 residents.
As of Monday, the county is at 44 positive cases per 100,000 residents, per Arizona Department of Health Services.
Tucson Unified School District, which has the most schools out of any district in Southern Arizona, became the biggest domino to OK football for the fall, and created a plan that will force football players to attend class virtually, sign a waiver for liability reasons and have frequent COVID-19 testing and preventative measures during practice and games.
As most teams around Tucson prepare for a Nov. 6 start date, initially scheduled for Oct. 30, this benefits Buena for scheduling teams, because every week has been a crapshoot.
Buena’s season opener was supposed to be against Salpointe, but the week before its showdown with the Lancers, the Colts abruptly scheduled a game against San Tan Valley Combs because their home opener against Queen Creek Cactus Shadows was canceled due to a team outbreak.
On two days’ notice, Buena had to prepare for a road trip to San Tan Valley.
The following week, Salpointe Catholic entered a two-week quarantine so Buena was left exploring for other opponents and beat Paradise Valley 58-6 on the road.
With the power of Twitter, Facebook and the Arizona Interscholastic Association website calendar, Thomas discovered options for his team to play football.
Two consecutive weeks, two opponents the Colts had no intentions in playing when the schedule was first released. The week-by-week method of how Buena navigates through its schedule is a current sign of the times.
“It’s different and you just never know who you’re going to prepare for so it’s hard to watch film on those guys, because it’s like, ‘Hey, we can play this team or we can play somebody else,’ so basically we just try to get ourselves better,” Thomas said.
“If we get better, then we’ll be able to execute. We just have to focus on us, because we never know who we’re going to play. … We don’t know if we’re going to get another opportunity to play next week or not so when we got an opportunity to play, we were like, ‘Hey, let’s go.’ We don’t want to wait on anybody else.”
A city like Tucson, riddled with big-school football programs that compete at Class 4A, 5A and 6A levels, but hasn’t been available for games over the last month, has forced Buena to travel to an extra hour or two to Pinal County or Maricopa County just to get a game on its schedule.
“It definitely makes it tough,” Buena junior wide receiver Keyon Taylor said. “It just makes it hard, because all these regulations make it tough. The most difficult challenge is finding games.
“We want to compete against the best teams and I’m not trying to talk down on anybody, but we want to play good teams.
“We just played Salpointe and it makes our heads level compared to going up against guys who’ve barely played a game.
“We want to play Tucson teams, but we just can’t right now, because of all the regulations and guidelines for Covid.
“It just sucks.”
As of now, Buena (2-1) is slated to play at Casa Grande (4-1) on Friday at 7 p.m., but Thomas is prepared for the worst-case scenario and said, “On Thursday, they can say, ‘Hey, you’re not playing Casa Grande, you’re playing somebody else.’”
Hoping for a home game, Buena has an opening on Nov. 6, whether it’s against a Tucson- or Phoenix-area opponent.
“We don’t mind traveling, but there’s nothing like a good Friday night home game,” Taylor said.
Whenever Buena plays its first home game, it’ll hold a pre-game Senior Night ceremony for the 2021 graduates on the team, because of the uncertainty of how the season will finish.
That could either be on Nov. 6 or the following Friday when Buena is slated to host Cienega.
Home, away, it doesn’t matter for Buena if it continues its season along with the rest of the state to ensure a spot in the statewide 5A playoffs, if the Colts qualify.
Traveling by bus and not being able to use facilities for pre- and post-game isn’t the ideal way of playing football games.
“But guess what? I’d rather be on the road playing than sitting at home and not playing,” Thomas said. “If we gotta travel, we gotta travel. We’re committed to doing it so let’s do it.”
“Anytime you step on a football field, you shouldn’t even worry about where you’re at. The fact that you’re on the field matters. If you’re at Salpointe, Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas — who freaking cares? Every time you step on the grass, your mentality should be ‘I’m playing football.’”
And playing football is something not many teams within a 40-minute drive can say, at least until next week.
