T-burg readies for uncertain football season

One of the major talking points stemming from the recent New York state guidelines regarding high school sports is the restriction of high-risk sports, like football, to just practices starting Sept. 21. Interscholastic competition in football is anything but guaranteed this year as a result.

The latest developments from the New York State Public High School Athletics Association (NYSPHSAA) state that individual regions have the jurisdiction to move their football season to the spring. This puts football coaches in the difficult spot of bringing their teams together without a tangible end goal.

It’s certainly not how Julian Munoz, Trumansburg’s head football coach, envisioned the second year of T-burg football looking since its return. Last season was the team’s first in six years, and now, no one knows when the second will happen. Munoz discussed where his mind was before and after the state’s announcement.

“I was honestly hoping that [Gov. Andrew Cuomo] would just let us all go and play,” Munoz said. “But in the end, it might not be the worst thing in the world if we do get a little bit of a delayed start just because, when you think about the athletes, we haven’t seen any of these kids since March. We don’t know what kind of fitness level they’re going to be in when they arrive.”

A lot of trust has gone into this offseason, given the lack of physical contact. Munoz has relied on Google Classroom to stay in touch with his team, attempting to keep them in shape online.

“I was pushing workouts out and stuff like that with them, but I haven’t actually seen them work out,” Munoz said. “I’ve gotten feedback that they had been, so I’m kind of going by their word-of-mouth. I do trust them. I think the vast majority of them are working out. But we still need everyone to come in in decent shape. We’re only as good as the worst player in terms of how good of shape they are in.”

What helps with that trust is having returning captain Dean Sheerer guiding the players through the offseason as well. Munoz discussed the impact of having a familiar face in a leadership role in an uncertain year.

“It’s huge, especially considering we’re a second-year program, actually being able to have some leadership come back,” he said. “What I understand from talking to kids is that he’s been really good about getting after them, making sure they’re getting some workouts in, which is exciting.”

When those players do show up, Munoz already has a plan of attack for the practices. He’ll be treating it like a three-week preseason, ramping up the team for games that are not on the schedule quite yet.

“I’m assuming that, based on Gov. Cuomo and his previous actions where he uses that ‘open the valve slowly’ statement, that he wants to see what happens when fall sports start before he starts [looking at football],” Munoz said. “Then, he’ll gradually give us a little more leeway to play. I’m thinking if everything goes well in those first few weeks and we don’t see an uptick in COVID or anything like that, I think we will get to play.”

Optimism is certainly necessary in a year like this. The energy that Munoz has toward the upcoming season is being felt by his players ahead of their first practice together.

“They’ve been chomping at the bit,” Munoz said. “We showed some great improvement over the course of the season and got better and better. The kids were feeling pretty good at the end, and they were talking about it all up through last spring how they were really looking forward to the start. I think not being able to play right at the beginning kind of bummed them out a little bit, but as long as we get to play, I think that they’re going to be pretty excited.”

Keeping the players motivated during the offseason is one thing, but doing so in a season without any games on the horizon is another. Munoz discussed how he plans on keeping those competitive juices flowing during in-person practices.

“Let’s prepare as if we’re going to play in three weeks, and then, we will cross that bridge when the time comes,” Munoz said. “If we start going through the motions and we’re not getting better every day, then that’s going to decrease our ability to make a potential run at getting into the playoffs this year, which is a goal that we have. They have to just keep that goal in mind, even though they’re not going to let us play the playoffs.”

Athletic teams are restricted to just playing within their region until further notice, and the delayed start to the season limits postseason opportunities. Either way, after studying the numbers, Munoz is optimistic that he’ll be able to lead the Blue Raiders onto the field this year.

“When you look at things across Tompkins County, and we can only stay in our region, we’re well below 1%,” Munoz said. “Cornell has been back, and there hasn’t been a huge uptick in COVID cases. I’m also thinking about all those kids that got to play recreational sports over the summertime. They played soccer and they played baseball, and they did all that stuff. There were no real issues that came out of that.”

A full regular season schedule is the most optimal outcome in Munoz’s eyes. The only guarantee this upcoming season is that he’ll be able to see his program in person in just under three weeks.