TUCSON, Ariz. -- Salpointe Catholic High School will have their first varsity football game Friday, but it'll look different than usual.
Players are to wear masks if they were on the sidelines, and there's also restrictions on how many people can come in to watch and where they sit.
These are just a few of the modifications Phil Gruensfelder says Salpointe Catholic High School is enforcing to keep athletes and coaches safe.
Gruensfelder has been the director of athletics there for 21 years.
“We’re allowing each one of our participants four tickets to the game. We have put exes on the seats in our stadium for them to sit. We are using paperless tickets. We’re only allowing people to come in in one direction and they’re leaving in the same direction. We’re not using locker rooms. We’re keeping everyone outside,” he told KGUN9.
He says this is necessary in order to keep athletes playing the sports they love, while keeping them safe.
This is why temperature checks are also a must before athletes get on the field--that goes for the visiting team as well.
“We’ve asked our players, if you’re not playing, you’re masked up,” he added.
After weeks of uncertainty, Salpointe football is now in phase four.
“Which is you know semi-regular. I mean we’re still sanitizing the football, we do this with volleyball as well. Kids not able to share water. You almost have to have a compliance coach, every day,” he said.
So they’ll continue applying these new rules and allowing spectators to watch.
However, if these restrictions are not followed they’ll go back to square one.
“We’ll have to go back to restricting all spectators in there because then like I said, this is about student athletes being able to play their sport,” he told KGUN9.
