“Nobody knows, still to this day, what we’re doing.”
That’s how Cienega High School football coach Pat Nugent, with more than 30 years of experience, described the preparation for the 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His program, perennially the largest in Southern Arizona, welcomed back players on Aug. 18 for conditioning drills. Practices can start Sept. 7, per AIA rules, with games scheduled to start sometime between Sept. 30 and Oct. 3.
Preseason workouts are limited to nine players per coach, and each field is restricted to 36 players. The social distance is strange for a program that welcomes any kid who wants to play football and regularly counts numbers into the 170s.
“What we know of Cienega football is not there,” Nugent said. “We don’t even have a roster of what we’re looking for with freshmen. We haven’t seen any freshmen.”
Most of the upperclassmen can drive or get a ride to the football field, but with school closed to in-person classes and no busing available, it’s difficult for younger players to make it. Even if they could, coaches may not be able to accommodate them.
A few of Nugent’s assistants have opted out for personal reasons, and the coach understands. There are not enough thermometers to comply with the mandatory temperature checks and never enough space for everybody that wants to come.
“We have one group that shows up at 4:20 (p.m.) and they walk in one side of the stadium, another group walks in the other side,” Nugent said. “Ten minutes later, another group of nine kids walks in and another on the other side. We ask wellness questions, and their temperature must be below 100” degrees to be allowed in.
The Bobcats can’t yet use the weight room. That’s part of Phase 2.
A group of Cienega Bobcat players wait for their turn to warm-up before the Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks 10-0 loss to the Cienega Bobcats at Ironwood High School on November 1st, 2019.
Summer weightlifting is embedded in the culture of high school football. The workouts build camaraderie while getting players physically ready for the demanding toll they endure throughout a season.
Cienega’s coaches have asked players to work out on their own, with regimens provided by strength and conditioning coach Steve Schween.
“He’s almost like a father figure to all of our athletes, and he accommodates for everybody,” senior Isaiah Webb said. “If you have access to a gym in a garage, he’ll send you a workout that has weights. If you have bands and chains, he’ll throw in those bands and chains. If you don’t have anything, he’ll give you an at-home workout where you can hold your backpack up with things stuffed in it.”
Some players are in shape, while others clearly aren’t. It’s a fact that concerns Nugent, especially with games tentatively scheduled to start in a month.
“The level of conditioning is all over the place,” Nugent said. “Every year, our kids have prepared all summer long to play the game of football. I’m very concerned about the soft tissue issues and some of the injuries that may occur, because we just haven’t been able to work with some of our kids the way we have in the past.”
The coach is somewhat reassured by his group of seniors, who led two-day-a-week player-only practices in July. There were as many 45 players at the high school facilities every day before the school shut them down.
“We tried to get everyone to come out,” senior running back Gabe Levy said. “We did some footwork drills, running, 7-on-7s, just to get everyone back into the swing of things.”
Cienega junior Christian Dicochea, 15, catches the football during the Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks 10-0 loss to the Cienega Bobcats at Ironwood High School on November 1st, 2019.
Players know that even if they do everything right, it might not matter.
“We get told to stay out of the public: ‘If you want to play your senior season, wear a mask,’” Webb said. “Then, we do everything we’re asked, and (the season’s start) is still being pushed back. But we’re trying to keep a positive outlook. All of us love the sport of football, and we would do anything for it. So if that means staying in our house for a couple more months or weeks, we’ll do that.”
