Crisp County's program is on the rise. The team lost last season to Cedar Grove in the state championship game at Georgia State Stadium in the program's first finals appearance, and this spring's practice was going to be a crucial step in building for another season.
That all changed when the coronvavirus pandemic sidelined all spring sports across the state, a development that coach Brad Harber tried to put into perspective.
"Championships are won in the offseason, and character builds then when no one's looking," said Harber.
The Cougars' run through the 2019 playoff bracket was a testament to its coaching staff, players and the small community of Cordele that supports its home team. But virus aside, there will be challenges ahead. Crisp will face a tougher task in region play after moving from the four-team Region 1, where it won the last four region titles, to Region 2 with former AAAA programs Americus-Sumter, Mary Persons and Upson-Lee and AAA powerhouse Peach County.
The Cougars were poised to spend the spring preparing a numerous and talented group of returning players for another deep run into next year's playoff bracket. With the loss of spring practice comes the loss of team development and preparing for any personnel changes or scheme adjustments.
"In the spring and summer, you go to this professional development and you decide to change your offense or defensive philosophy and put in something new," Harber said. "And then all of a sudden all this offseason time is taken away from me. So it is going to be interesting. Fortunately, we do have the bulk of our team returning. But it's not going to be easy on anybody's front, but it should be a little bit easier with as many guys as we have returning."
There is no timeline for a return of spring practice, but Crisp is making the best of it.
"I think football-wise we're going to just roll into summer," Harber said. "And I don't even know if we'll get started with practice at all."
While the sports world in Georgia stays sidelined, Crisp are other programs in the state are finding way to stay in shape.
"We're sharing workouts and stuff on social media, and right now it's just that everybody's in the same moment," he said. "It's so uncertain because for the coaches, you just hope you've done a good enough job of talking about being self-disciplined and getting the things done on your own. Do you preach that enough to your players who are returning? Are they staying in shape some kind of way? I know that they can't come up to the weight room. Right now, there's a tremendous amount shared on social media with workouts and things you can do for home body-weight workouts and all that kind of stuff. So it's been a whirlwind. It's been crazy."
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