Bibb County high school football returns with coronavirus protocols in place

Spoon Risper is entering his 12th year as the head coach of Westside and is the longest-tenured head coach in Bibb County. There is little Risper hasn’t experienced during his over 20 years of coaching.

After an additional two-week delay in the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Risper will return to the sidelines and his players will get back to some normalcy Friday night.

“There is a lot of stress involved in this, out-of-game stress too,” Risper said. “The community is excited. They want to see some football.”

Despite the delay in the start of the season, Risper said his team isn’t at a disadvantage compared to teams that have already played. Westside opens with Central, a Bibb County school that will also be playing for the first time this season. He said that it helps that in the first game of the new season that Westside will be taking on Central, a Bibb County school who will be playing for the first time this season too.

“A lot of schools are just now starting too. A lot of coaches who had teams starting on Sept. 4 bumped their season back also,” Risper said. “The kids are fresh, they are not beat up as much.”

The game against Central was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved to Friday due to Hurricane Sally. The game sold out early in the week as stadium capacity is reduced from 6,500 to 900.

Tickets won’t be sold at games

Barney Hester, Bibb County athletic director, said it’s great to see community support for the opening game. He is encouraging fans to get this season’s tickets early since they won’t be sold at games. Tickets can be purchased on the GoFan app.

“(This matchup) will energize the fan bases and hopefully encourage fans to buy those tickets early throughout this year,” Hesters said. “Having a game like Central versus Westside to open the season is exciting. Usually, when they compete they have full houses.”

Along with Westside and Central, three other Bibb County schools will start their seasons this week. Southwest is the lone team not playing.

Hester said he is glad teams will get a chance to compete before region play begins. It gives players and coaches the opportunity to fix weaknesses and make adjustments before playing games that will affect playoff positioning. This is especially true in a season where teams didn’t get the opportunity to scrimmage or have spring workouts, Hester said.

“Competition is very important. Competition gets you ready to play those big games later on,” Hester said. “I think it is huge that we are getting games in before we start region competition.”

Making football stadiums safe

Bibb County put strict coronavirus guidelines in place before the start of the football season. Hester said fans will have to adjust as they travel since rules and guidelines vary from district to district. Hester said it will take time for fans to adjust to their rules that include wearing masks during games and tickets not being available at the gate.

“We are going to do everything we possibly can to make our environment as safe as we possibly can make it for our fans, for our players and for our coaches,” Hester said. “It is important that our fans realize what we are trying to do. We are not trying to make it hard for anybody. We are trying to make it as safe as we can for everybody.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.