Southwest coach believes Georgia should postpone football season after COVID experience

In March, Southwest High School’s head football coach Joe Dupree was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. While he recovered, Dupree said it was a scary moment for him and his family.

With the start of football roughly a month away, Dupree said he is concerned about the health and safety of coaches and high school students across the state.

“It was a very, very scary time for my family. I spent three days in the hospital; originally they thought I had pneumonia,” Dupree said. “I’m scared for my life, my coaches’ lives and my players’ lives.”

While the GHSA allowed schools to being football practices on June 8, the Dupree’s Patriots aren’t back to full practices, in part because of a now month-long spike in COVID-19 cases in Middle Georgia. Dupree said that he isn’t worried about losing a competitive advantage by waiting to start practice but, eventually, he will have to start preparing his players for the season.

“My job is to make sure they are safe doing this during this tough time,” Dupree said. “For me, it is easy to put them first and put safety first. But like I say, it is difficult because you have a job to do.”

According to athletic director Barney Hester, no Bibb County School District student athlete has tested positive for the coronavirus since practices resumed in early June.

The Bibb County school district has set out guidelines based on recommendations set forward by the GHSA and CDC in an attempt to keep their athletes safe. Hester said that Dupree’s case of COVID-19 is one that he takes very seriously and the safety of everyone involved is something that the district is prioritizing.

“When somebody like Joe comes along and they tell you what they have gone through, it does cause you to take a step back and look at it in a different way,” Hester said. “Their welfare is a huge concern for the whole district and certainly for me. We want those guys to stay safe.”

The GHSA has pushed the season back by two weeks until Sept. 4. Most of the teams in Bibb County have started practicing and are gearing up for the season. Hester said the key now is to try and mitigate the virus from spreading as much as possible in order for the season to start on time.

“We have got to do the very best we can but we can’t continue to stay inside,” Hester said. “I think you have got to weigh everything when you are looking at this picture. And I think GHSA has done that. I think our administration has done that. They have weighed everything and they see the importance of people continuing to live in a time that nobody really knows what the next step. I think you’ve got to take all the precautions you can take.”

But Dupree believes the two-week pushback isn’t enough of a delay, considering the recent spike in cases. He hopes the GHSA will reconsider starting the season in early September. Dupree said that he is worried that the wrong decision could lead to coronavirus-related deaths.

“I just think it is a band-aid that is being put over a wound that is going to ultimately cost some people their lives,” Dupree said. “They need to bring coaches to the table when these decisions are being made because they are not in the frontlines.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.