Kingfisher head football coach Jeff Myers was the guest speaker last Thursday at Kingfisher Lions Club.

Myers’ team was 2-1 at the time of his talk and one day from visiting Bridge Creek to open District 3A-1 play.

He talked about the difficulties of coaching in the era of a pandemic.

“It’s been extremely interesting thus far,” he said.

KHS had yet to have a game affected by cancellation or postponement.

“We’re one of the few who can say that so far and hopefully it continues,” he said.

He praised his team members for doing their part to follow guidelines to ensure Kingfisher isn’t the cause of any such season disruptions.

That includes wearing neck gaiters, purchased for them by the program, when possible.

“And we’ve had to adjust our practice schedule to make sure we’re never in the same spot and around the same people for more than 15 minutes,” he said.

It also affects travel.

While the size of this year’s team easily could fit on one activity bus, the team had previously taken two buses and will now take three on road trips.

“It’s not the positive cases that hurt a team, but the contact tracing,” said Myers, noting that some teams having to quarantine the entire program for two weeks have had as few as one positive case.

“And it’s things like bus rides that really hurt teams because spacing out six feet on a bus isn’t easy,” he added.

Whereas before players had their own seat, there is now going to be at least one empty seat between players. They’ll also have assigned seats, he said.

“That way, if we do have a positive case, we can easily identify anyone who may have been in close contact,” Myers said.

There’s at least one empty locker between players as well and team members are encouraged to not congregate in the locker room before and after practices.

“It’s tough on the kids, but they’re doing a really good job,” Myers said. “I’ve told them that the team that does the best at the end of the season could very well be the one that stays the healthiest all season long.

“So, for us, we’re trying to manage the best we can and keep them healthy.”

Lions Club member Chase Farrar arranged for the talk and introduced Myers.