Heights punts on fall sports: Steiner knows football will face challenges

In a normal year, Wisconsin Heights football coach Trevor Steiner and his Vanguards would have three weeks of practice under their collective belts by now. Heights would have already played its first game. And the Vanguards would be in the midst of a fall certain to create a lifetime of memories. Nothing has been normal in 2020, though. And things got a little more wacky Monday night. The Wisconsin Heights school board approved a plan to move fall sports to the spring due to concerns surrounding COVID-19. The WIAA recently approved a four-season plan giving schools that don’t feel comfortable playing in the fall the option of moving their season to the spring. That means the Vanguards will now play football from March 8-May 3 under their new alternate fall sports schedule. For Steiner and his team, it’s just the latest piece of bad news in a year packed with setbacks. But Steiner will try focusing on the positive and begin getting his team ready for spring football. “I’ve been totally out of sync since this began in March,” Steiner said. “Losing the end of basketball season, no spring sports, losing the normal routine of the summertime build-up to the season, it’s been tough, and I know the kids are really tired of it too.   “Ultimately, I want the kids to have a chance to play football this school year, and if it has to happen next spring, then so be it. And like everything so far, this is not a guarantee either. We have to be in a better place with the virus in February and March than where we are now, or there will be no season at that time.” Steiner knows a winter/spring season will be littered with challenges. In a typical Wisconsin winter, there is still snow on the ground in early March, which is when the Vanguards’ football season will now begin. March and April often include frigid temperatures, sleet, rain and everything else imaginable. So, trying to navigate a season through nasty weather — and a beat-up field — could be tough. “My main concern is weather and field conditions,” Steiner said. “There’s a distinct possibility the ground will still be frozen when we start in the spring, maybe even remnants of snow and ice.   “We beat up that field pretty good in late summer and early fall in normal times. I’m a little concerned we could have a tough time getting on the field to start, and once it thaws, we could really tear it up. Then it could be really difficult to recover for the fall season.” Steiner knows there could also be an overlap with traditional spring sports. For example, boys golf, baseball and track will all start the week of April 19, meaning football would intersect for two weeks. “If there are conflicts with other sports, we have had a dual-sport policy in the past that has been pretty forgiving to the athletes attempting to play two sports in the same season,” Steiner said. “However, if we have numerous kids missing practices to participate in other sports, I hope people realize that it would be very difficult to game plan for a team when you are missing a handful of players two or three nights a week, especially a team with a small roster.   “It’s also tough to look at the kids in the eye who sacrifice by being at every practice and tell them that someone else will play in front of them and they were only there for two or three nights because they chose to participate in another activity. It’s a tough deal for everyone, and I hope we can work together to figure it out.” Steiner isn’t sure if he’ll be given contact days with his team or when he’ll be able to work with them again. But if Heights is able to play in the spring, Steiner’s goals won’t be the same as a normal season. “I’m just hoping we can successfully get through this year with this divided schedule and hopefully return to more normal next fall,” he said. “My goals as a football coach this year have nothing to do with wins and losses, or championships.   “I have two goals: one is to do my best to field a football team as safely as possible week in and week out. Secondly, I want to re-establish the strong relationships that accompany people who engage in activities such as sports. If you take in everything that is happening, those two are going to be challenging enough without even concerning the wins and losses.”