When Luke Nelson accepted the athletics director position at his alma mater, he likely figured his biggest hurdle would be taking over for the legend that is Kelly Rine.
Nelson performed well his first semester, continuing with what Rine built and adding his own little tweaks.
Little did he realize that soon, standing in Rine’s shadow would be the least of his concerns.
COVID-19 brings a litany of headaches to even the most seasoned high school AD. Nelson was barely on the job when things started going haywire for the sports world.
St. Clairsville’s basketball teams were already eliminated. But a number of wrestlers were unable to compete at the state meet because of its cancellation.
Then, the entire sports season was wiped out. Dealing with angry and upset parents, disappointed students and coaches just looking for clarification couldn’t have been easy.
“The bar that Kelly set is extremely high, but I liked that,” Nelson said. “I like that the standards are high because it pushes me to be successful.
“When I look back on my time here as a student and athlete, I had the time of my life with those memories and I’ll do anything I can do to mirror that experience for our students.
“But I promise he’s not missing great things having to deal with these guidelines. But we’ll put our heads down, persevere and push through this.”
Like every athletic department staff across the summer, Nelson waited for final directive from the governor and the OHSAA, brainstorming as many contingencies and possibilities as possible prior to the final word being handed down.
Once the governor provided clarification, he had even more work to do.
The Lady Red Devils defeated Philo 3-0 in the opening sporting event of the 2020-21 school year at Red Devil Stadium.
The first athletic event of the season, the Friday Futbol doubleheader came right after the governor’s press conference. It didn’t give you much time to prepare did it? Plus, the rules for the percentage capacity came out the day prior.
Literally one day after the director’s order came out, we had our first games. The director’s orders are very strict and if you don’t abide by those, you may have to forfeit games or even the season. That’s the verbiage laid out by the OHSAA in the most recent update. That’s what we will follow.
The important thing is there is a season taking place. But was that part of the reasoning for bumping up senior night to the home opener? Are you playing the odds just in case the full season isn’t played?
Honestly, it makes me nauseous just to think about it and say it allowed. But we also want to be wise in our decision making and the kids are our priority, especially the seniors. This is a special time for these kids, and we want to give them as many opportunities as we can under our guidelines. With all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and all the changes being made by the OHSAA and even the health department, it was a move we needed to make.
Talk to me about capacity and how it relates to tickets. The athletics departments released a two-page detailed description of the process just today.
The director’s order that came out August 19 limited our capacity to 15 percent at our venues. At Red Devil Stadium, which seats 3,100, we can have 465 fans total. It takes a tremendous amount of work to accommodate our student athletes and provide equal opportunities to our players, cheerleaders, band members, in addition to the visiting team and their participants. It starts with two tickets per participating student, and you can see how that number climbs when you have 69 football players, 70 marching band members and 20 cheerleaders. That’s almost the full amount right there. All participants are offered two tickets, with our seniors being offered four. There will be no ticket sales at the gate. We’ve also moved to a paperless ticket system that will be in use for this Friday’s game, HomeTown Ticketing. It offers a paper-free, touchless ticketing experience.
But what about if there are tickets left over, or every participant doesn’t use or need his or her two (or four) tickets?
Prior athletes can visit StCAthletics.com and click on the tickets icon. You will have to enter your students’ school ID when it asks for a passcode. Once the tickets are purchased, bring your phone or printed QR code to the game to be scanned. One the priority sale period is complete each game, then the remaining tickets, if any, will be open to both students and general admission. For those who can’t get a ticket, we will be live streaming home football games at StcAthletics.com for all community members at no cost. Radio will also be available on 95.7 KISS FM. We wanted to offer free streaming as a way to hopefully sell to the community that they matter too. We’re trying to provide opportunities for everyone, while at the same time, following the order strictly. It’s not possible to please everyone but I always go back to all these decisions that we’re making matter most for the participants on the field and their families. Any decision that affects the fans or beyond, while important, are not the priority as much as the student-athletes are.
Say for some reason the capacity stipulation extends beyond the postseason and into winter sports. How does that 15 percent hold up, say, in the gymnasium at John Jenkins Court?
Our current capacity at John Jenkins Court is 120 people if we’re talking 15 percent. To put that into perspective if you’ve been in our gym, that’s 60 fans on each side of the gym, 15 people in each of the four sections of seating. We’ve had pep assemblies where we’ve fit nearly an entire grade in a section, which is almost 100 people, and we’re only allowed 15. That’s going to be difficult but hopefully, opportunities will be provided to move ahead safely, and we can expand. If not, we’ll follow the best we can what the governor and Department of Health are telling us.
