Jon Nelson Column: Seasons and Sports Change

It is on to the next steps for high school sports with football season ending right before the end of the 2020 calendar.

Soccer, baseball, and all the other winter sports are ready to roll with the caution and forethought we saw to pull off the previous seasons for all the schools and student-athletes that played football.

And it is also part of the calendar where the football coaches we saw in the fall and winter take what they have known and apply it to the sports they are in to start 2021.

For Drew Tankersley, he has traded in his whistle for a diamond at Irwin County. He was a part of the coaching staff that went back-to-back for the Indians football team in Class-A public. 

It is on to the next with the lessons of one season brought to the new one.

“In football, we were in individual groups while drills were going on,” Tankersley said. “And when the drill was over, we would separate. In baseball, it is easier. If there is a glove drill, for instance, the proximity is not there. It’s only there if there are runners on base or if you’re the catcher during an at-bat.”

Batting practice, as an example, has group numbers down from 4 to 2. In action, Tankersley admits, you are never close. But you still must be on full guard.

“You encourage the players to stay as apart as they can off the field, too,” Tankersley says. “When we got back to school during football season, the teachers at the school worked with us to make sure our players sat together. It’s the same now with the baseball players in their own pods to try and avoid having any problems off the field.”

For Mark Ledford, he moves from one school in South Georgia to another. He was a middle school coach at Tift whereby his own admission, he was teaching younger players about fundamentals in the Blue Devils system. He has moved from Tifton to Cordele and is baseball coach as the season has started with the Cougars.

It is a full circle moment for Ledford as he returns, and he knows about the difficult times we are in.

“When you think about it, it’s a reminder that no part of this is guaranteed. Anything can change from one moment to the next,” Ledford said.

“The kids are the same from sport to sport. They want to perform, and you want to get them in their groove. They only played 12 games last year before everything stopped. They’ve been through a whole lot and we’ve having to cram in a whole lot in a short period of time with the new coaching staff I’m a part of here.”

As seasons and sports change, coaches have a lot of knowledge for us all going forward.

They always do.

Play it safe, everyone. I will talk to you soon.

Written by: Jon Nelson