By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Yukon will begin phase-2 of summer sports activities with the Millers returning to the Wellness center weight facility beginning Monday.
The Miller football team started phase-1 this past Monday with body weight and speed and agility drills on the practice field south of the Wellness center. The team was broken up into small groups and did their workouts with players staying 10-feet apart in their groups.
Phase-2 allows the team to move inside the Wellness Center and into the weight facility to begin more of their strength conditioning for the upcoming season. The workouts will also increase from 60-minutes this first week to 90-minutes.
The summer pride program will be broken up into three sessions (all high school) and will have groups inside training on weights and others outside continuing their speed and agility work that was started this week.
The safety precautions remain in place where each athlete will have their temperature taken before entering the facility and will have to fill out a questionnaire related to COVID-19. The athletes will have to bring their own water bottle and face coverings will be worn inside.
“We will continue the process that we started the first week of bringing the groups inside and not allowing them to congregate in the parking lot like we did this first week,” Miller head coach Jeremy Reed said. “The athletes will also have to bring their own water bottle. I feel the day of us providing water is over. I can’t share your water bottle and you can’t share mine. That will be a new responsibility of their’s and the players will have to adjust to that.
“The foundational purpose for the first week has been to evaluate each individual kid and their group, which are seven to nine, and what is their conditioning level,” he said. “Are they fit enough to go through a 90-minute workout next week. We have a system of how we are documenting it because ultimately this whole deal has to be about the safety of the kids. Not just from COVID-19, but from a physical level of are they in good enough condition to go through what our typical workouts look like.
“So, we will evaluate the kids and as a staff we will go through and see how many kids are not ready to go through a weight workout and a speed/agility workout outside in a phase-2. At that point we will have to make a decision of bringing those kids in a different group to get them up to speed. We are not going to point kids out, it is all based around safety.”
The phase-2 will be in three groups with the first group checking in from 6:40-6:55 a.m. and will workout from 7-8:30 a.m. and will start in the weight room. The workout will be 40 minutes on weights and then go outside for speed and agility drills. After that there will be a breakfast provided to go.
“When the kids get here, they will still have assigned parking, there will be shuffling and, there is no way to stay away from that,” Reed said. “When they get here, they will report to the front of the Wellness Center, will have assigned spots, take temperature and fill out the forms. We will have hand sanitizer there to make sure everyone has clean hands before entering the building.
“In all of our research, if you start with clean hands you are in good shape, especially with touching weights and stuff,” he said. “They will exit out the east doors to the outside for their speed and agility drills. The players will never enter and exit through the same doors.”
Each weight station will have three athletes in a group as to not have one lean over the other when spotting.
“We will have kids on each end of the bar so there will be no physical contact,” he said.
“And, those three will stay at that one station, no rotation in the weight room. They will stay at that same rack.
“We have it worked that our coaches will stay with their group and we will keep all groups isolated, so if someone does test positive, we can isolate that group only and let the other groups continue their workouts. Our coaches will stay only with their group. For me I will not go inside the physical weight room, as to not cross contaminate groups.”
