It was 10 p.m. on Tuesday and Troy Hoff, the head football coach Eastside High School in Covington, was still at work.
And loving it.
“Considering where we were 24 hours ago, I don’t mind at all,” Hoff said.
For the previous week, Eastside – one of the schools in Newton County – had been shut down. The Eagles weren’t allowed to practice and the prospects of having football set aside for 2020 looked ominous. But Monday the county’s board of education rescinded the order and allowed practice and competition to begin again.
Hoff, who is beginning his sixth season as head coach at Eastside, was elated.
“It was only a week and a day, but it seemed like a month,” he said. “It was a difficult situation at best.”
While the athletes could not assemble for practice, they met in daily Zoom session and stayed in contact with each other and the staff. He said players had been through similar uncertainties in the spring when track, baseball and soccer was suddenly stopped and that probably helped this tenuous situation.
“And our coaching staff and our athletes did a good job embracing what needed to be done,” Hoff said. “Our top priority is safety and we’ve got a great group of young people who love what they’re doing.”
The one-week intermission isn’t likely to have a huge effect on Eastside. The Eagles, who are moving up from Class 4A to Class 5A this season, weren’t scheduled to play the first week. They decided a year ago to avoid some of the heat-related problems and start a week later than many schools and have only one off-week during the season. Now Eastside can start as scheduled on Sept. 11 at Winder-Barrow.
Eastside is one of the newcomers to Region 8 and is expected to be among those who contend for a playoff slot. The Eagles have made the playoffs in each of the last four seasons and reached the quarterfinals in 2018.
“We’ve still got a long way to go,” Hoff said. “We’ve got some good kids and they’re working really hard, but we don’t know more than that.”
Eastside’s defense will be a strength. Linebacker Trace Nicholson, the team’s leading tackler, and tackle Seth Martin, both return. Both are hard-nosed guys with high motors who don’t like to leave the field. In fact, both will have roles on offense, too.
The Eagles must find away to replace quarterback Noah Cook, who threw for 1,849 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2019 and 1,845 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2018. He signed with Garden City Community College in Kansas.
Cook’s replacement will be Jalen Woods, who was the backup a year ago and starter at wide receiver.
“The transition has gone well,” Hoff said. “What we’re looking for there is consistency and that’s where the lost time from the spring, the 7-on-7 camps over the summer, really hurts.”
But at least they’re playing again. And that’s worth working late.
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