The MUCC Comets warm up before exhibition play against Carrot River High School (Submitted photo/Jess Baker).

By Aaron Schulze

COVID-19 Football Season

MUCC wrapping up unique COVID-19 football season

Oct 28, 2020 | 5:09 PM

The end of October typically spells the end of the Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC) Comets’ regular season.

Just like previous years, the Comets’ 2020 season will end as November rolls around, although there were some key differences due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of playing L.P. Miller Comprehensive, Tisdale Middle and Secondary, and Churchill Community High, the Comets only have three exhibition games against Carrot River High School.

“We knew there was going to be no provincial playoffs in August… we just weren’t sure about what would happen,” Comets head coach Dave Rogers told northeastNOW. “Whether we’d have a regular-season where we’d play Nipawin and Tisdale in some sort of a regular season. The COVID-19 rules said a mini-league of no more than 80 participants, and that meant the size of those nine-man schools limited how we could put everything together.”

With fellow nine-man football programs unable to play in 2020, the Comets turned to the six-man specialist Carrot River High School. Compared to playing a season of at least nine weeks, Rogers said the exhibition season isn’t ideal, but the Comets feel fortunate to have played football at all in 2020.

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“We got a chance to see those younger kids develop and give those older kids an opportunity to play, which is better than a lot of schools where they haven’t played,” Rogers said. “So far, we’ve been fortunate. It’s a test to the fact that if you take the precautions – wear masks, follow social distancing guidelines, and sanitize – it provides opportunities for you and your teams to play the games. The number one priority for us and our players during these five weeks of football was to make sure the Melfort Comets spend those five weeks COVID-free.”

The Comets started on Sept. 28– six weeks later than normal– and played their first two games against Carrot River on Oct. 16 and 23, winning the first and dropping the second. Rogers said the games had to take a lot of teamwork and communication with Carrot River to ensure their older players enjoy their final minutes of football, their younger players develop, and both teams can play the six and nine-man football styles that suit them best.

“We play half the game in six-men and the other in nine-men. One of those quarters, we take all our younger kids and play six-man football. They’re playing against kids of similar ability, skill level, and age. In the second quarter, he plays his best six-man players against our best players on offence and defense.”

As the COVID-19 season, as Rogers called it, comes to an end, he hopes the team can prepare for a normal regular season in 2021.

The Comets’ final game against Carrot River is on Friday, Oct. 30 at around 4 p.m. at MUCC.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow