The Simpson Storm football program was among the many teams across the country who have lost their fall season due to COVID-19.

However, some football programs across Iowa are still being allowed to play. The Des Moines Public Schools were not able to continue their 2020 football season, while teams outside of DMPS were still granted their seasons. How is that fair? 

It’s not hard to notice that colleges are doing this as well. A few Division 1 and NAIA conferences are still allowed to play their seasons, leaving many football players around the country questioning the logic. 

 The Simpson Storm football team have been taking this opportunity to train, careful to follow conference guidelines. Both offense and defense get 50 separate minutes on three days a week to practice, having to split up into pods twenty yards apart. 

Not only does this type of practice affect the growth of a football team, but allows for little growth of individual players. Splitting up position groups leaves limited room for playbook install, causing some players to forget individual assignments and making the season more difficult for players overall. 

Simpson has done an excellent job maintaining the health of students while being one of the few colleges with low case numbers. Why are Storm football players still not cleared to train together?  

For the seniors, all the hard work they put in to make their final season full of memories turned out to be their worst nightmare. Imagine having something you worked so hard for snatched from you two weeks before it even starts.  

High school and senior college athletes across the country felt the hurt of not being able to play their final seasons back in the spring when COVID-19 first struck the United States. Never did senior fall sport athletes feel that the same thing would happen to them six months later. 

As the country continues to broaden its research on COVID-19, explore new potential vaccines and create new guidelines to create a safe environment for Americans, there is no reason schools can’t create a plan for fall sports that could give both high school and college athletes their season.