Helias Crusaders head coach Chris Hentges addresses his team after Monday's practice at Ray Hentges Stadium.

Aug. 12, 2020

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- What a memorable calendar year it's been for Helias athletics.

A boys-girls basketball district sweep, with the Crusaders moving on to the Final Four.

The baseball team, coming off a Final Four appearance in 2019, storming into the season as one of the contenders to win a state championship.

Now the football team. With a wealth of talented experience coming back from last year's 9-2 team, they'll be reaching for the stars.

Or not.
2020 has certainly been memorable, but for all the wrong reasons --- starting with our world in disarray and trickling down to our high school sports.

This miserable virus and this miserable year stopped our games in mid-March, denying the Crusaders a chance to compete in the Final Four. The baseball team had it worse, it never even took the field. Now, the football season ... who knows?

Nobody.
"All you can do," Helias coach Chris Hentges said, "is take it a day at a time."

What a tired, old cliche'. But it's never, EVER been more true than it is right now.

"We don't know what the virus is going to do," Hentges said. "All you can do is control what you can control --- we control our effort and what we do on the field every day.

"You have to be ready to practice tomorrow, and hope all your kids can make it and no one's in quarantine. We have a couple players in quarantine right now and we'll get them back when we get them back.

"We're doing everything we possibly can to keep the kids safe."

When the world stopped in March, it left all of us in limbo--- but not all of us are trying to build a football team.

"It was tough in the spring, we lost those two months (April and May) of lifting," Hentges said. "When we got them back in June, they were so happy to be back doing football things, lifting weights ... just doing the normal things.

"Then we had a good July, we really did. We've put in about 70-80 percent of our offense and about 90 percent of our defense, so I felt like we started August in a pretty good place."

Like everything else, football is not in a good place. Especially in the college ranks, as several conferences have canceled their fall seasons, including two of the five power conferences --- Big 10 and Pac 12.

"We just hope it doesn't trickle down to us,' Hentges said. "We're hoping to get some kind of season in, but the higher-ups are going to make that decision for us."

in these days of adjustments, Hentges has had to adjust a few things, like players using the locker room in shifts and social distancing in team meetings.

But the practices themselves haven't really changed, even though they're so different.

"We're trying to have a good practice every day and stay positive with the kids; I just think it's a mindset," Hentges said. "In practice, we coach them hard, we coach like we always do, and try not to dwell on things outside of our sphere of control."

The Crusaders have already lost one game this season due to the virus, at Granite City, ill. They're scheduled to compete at Blair Oaks in a Jaamboree on Aug. 21, before opening the season Aug. 28 at traditional rival Hannibal.

"We know at any moment,' Hentges said, "things can change. Everybody's just working their tails off, keeping their fingers crossed and Good Lord willing, we'll have a season."

Amen.

Chris Leuckel

Loeffler's Link

Hentges on future: 'We don't
know what virus is going to do