With 16 COVID-19 quarantines postponing the Homecoming and Oct. 2 football games, the team faces new challenges and adversity both on and off the field. Team bonding activities, such as an annual ‘clean up’ of Cottleville’s Legacy Park, originally a summer activity to help introduce the new freshmen players to the team, have been put under restrictions to help maintain the safety of our players and school. Senior Andrew Golden feels their moral and team spirit dampened by the recent developments. 

“Not having fans is kind of hard because we have to become our own support…and cheering system. Even missing out on practices is really hard…because football is such a big part of my life.” Golden said. 

Although there have been struggles and unexpected problems due to COVID-19, senior Alex Vogel remains positive. 

“[The circumstances have] pulled us together and brought us closer as a team because we knew that COVID-19 [would] affect us and we [needed] to do what we [could]…so I feel like it kinda brought us together as a family,” Vogel said.

Practices are continuing and the team hopes to see their teammates soon and resume their season and games safely once the players’ quarantines are lifted Oct. 5. Until then, they plan to work hard and continue pushing for improvement, learning from these experiences and building off them to take advantage of the time and opportunities they still have. Senior Kannon Cissell is confident in the ability of their team to push through. 

“We always play hard. It’s not like you can question how hard we’re playing, so I think as long as we’re playing hard and doing good in practice, things will be good.” Cissell said.