At the beginning of the season, Oconee County coach Travis Noland predicted that for many schools, personnel management would unfold on a week-to-week basis, not unlike NFL teams. And as the regular season comes to an end, Noland pointed to that phenomenon as perhaps the biggest difference between this season and all others.

“The daily and weekly uncertainty about how the coronavirus can affect a team, whether it’s your team or the team you’re getting ready to play, has been the biggest difference,” said Noland, whose Warriors – ranked No. 3 in Class 3A – play Friday at Monroe Area.

“We’re grateful to be able to play and we’re very fortunate that the number of positive tests among high school players has been relatively low, but the contact tracing that goes along with it has caused several game throughout the state to be canceled on basically a weekly basis. So there’s a lot more uncertainty every single day of just not knowing if the week is going to be complete or not.”

“This year, probably more than any other year, you just have to live in the moment,” said Jefferson coach Gene Cathcart, whose Dragons – ranked No. 2 in Class 4A – host Chestatee on Friday. “Every time your phone goes off or you get a text or email, it could be any one of a number of issues related to the virus. From week to week, we’re all just kind of holding our breath about who’s available and who’s not available and when will they be back and available.”

Cathcart said he’s had deep conversations with some players.

“It’s a stressful deal,” he said. “Most of our players have not tested positive but have been around folks that have been exposed, so contract tracing is so big. It’s a matter of holding your breath and figuring out a way to make it work.

“It’s still the right thing to do and I’m very proud of how our district has handled it but it’s still a frustrating thing. It’s tough to tell a kid who has worn his mask and has social distanced but has put himself in situations over the weekend where he’s sitting beside somebody who maybe didn’t do those things and he’s out. We’ve had some pretty emotional discussions with kids about that and it’s tough.”

For Athens Academy athletic director Kevin Petroski, the outset of the season proved to be extremely difficult but the planning the school did over the summer has made things a little less hairy down the stretch.

“At the beginning of the season it was a lot more stressful because there were so many more unknowns,” said Petroski. “We had to prepare protocols, we had to prepare signage and meet with the head of schools and the director of operations and formulate our plan and communicate that to the community.

“Early in the season was more difficult. As the season has gone on, more and more people want to come to the games and everybody was understanding, and now I think they realize they’re missing out on some things and they want to try to come. We’ve had a few more questions with that.”

Athens Academy, Jefferson and Oconee County have all had to adapt to situations regarding opponents that made it necessary to reschedule games, find new opponents or go without playing on certain weekends.

But Noland and Cathcart both expressed concerns about how the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend (which generally falls at the end of the postseason but this year will take place earlier in the playoffs) and the last few weeks of the regular season will affect rosters and outcomes.

“We’ve been able to play all seven games to this point,” said Noland. “I think down the stretch and in the playoffs there will be some things that will be very unfortunate but I hope I’m wrong. Cartersville canceled two games, and you’re taking a potential region champion and now they have two losses in their region. I think there’s going to be a lot of that in the next three weeks and I hope it doesn’t affect us.”

“I guarantee you after Thanksgiving there will be a bunch of teams whose players had folks who had come into town and or left town on Thursday, and somebody’s going to get popped,” said Cathcart.

Coaches have also had to make alterations to tried-and-true practices in areas like meetings, team meals and other chemistry-building procedures.

“We’ve really cut back on meetings with team, separated by grade more than I ever remember,” said Cathcart. “But we also don’t have walk-throughs in the mornings anymore and our team meals on Friday look different. Devotionals don’t look the same and neither does halftime. We’ve even changed our warmups. We don’t send certain groups out as early as we had before. You never know if you’re erring, but at least you’re erring on the side of caution.”

“The biggest difference to me is the bonding and the team events we had,” said Athens Academy tight end/defensive end Hugh Laughlin, a Virginia commitment who with his Spartans teammates will host Athens Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. “We just haven’t been able to do that this year. In past years we had a team dinner every Tuesday and we just haven’t been able to do things like that this year. That’s been one of the biggest differences for me and it’s something I most definitely miss.”

Chandler, a Clemson commitment, said above and beyond everything it takes to get to play on Fridays, the biggest change he’s noticed is the reduced audience urging on the Titans.

“Definitely fan attendance, and probably the fact that after games the big thing is to have everyone come on the field and get pictures and have a good time after a big win, and we just can’t do that anymore,” he said.

Cathcart pointed out other traditions that have moved to the bottom of the list in times of pandemic.

“We used to gather at the goalpost with our all families and fans and obviously nobody’s on the field after games,” he said. “And the postgame handshake is awkward. There’s really not one and you’re not really sure what to do, so you just kind of bump knuckles...and you stand about 20 yards apart and wave and wish each other luck.”

While responses vary on whether any idle moments are filled by thinking about the way things used to be or may be in the future, there’s not much disagreement that there’s a new norm. And it ain’t the same as the old norm.

“All we control is what we do every day and we’re just making sure we’re doing all we can to keep our players healthy and out there and try to prepare for the game that week,” said Noland. “We’re so accustomed to what is expected where it’s the new norm. We don’t make that big of a deal out of any of it. We just do it and go about our day the same as we did a year ago.

“I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about what it was like or what it’s going to be like – we’re too busy dealing with what it’s like right now and tomorrow. That’s where our focus is.”

“I’m trying to go every single day like it’s the last day I’ll live on earth – that’s how I live my life,” said Chandler. “So I don’t look into the future that much. But some nights I’ll think about things going back to normal and what it will be like to play in front of a full house again and what it will be like next year in college.”

“I hope this is not the new norm,” said Cathcart. “I hope we can return to normalcy eventually. This is a great lesson about prioritizing what’s important, but I certainly hope that (since) football is such an important part of the culture in the South and high school Friday nights and college football on Saturdays and NFL Sundays, we will one day will get back to normal.”