The Georgia High School Association says no balls can be used when athletes return to campus on June 8 for conditioning only.
Yep, no balls, no blocking sleds, no tackling dummies, just your basic speed and agility drills -- absolutely no shared equipment.
We found creative ways to play just about any sport as kids. We didn't have a whole lot, but we made do.
We had a big apple tree towering over our garage. It's busty branches sprouted those little, hard, green nasty-tasting apples. I'm sure you remember those, right?
Walking around the tree one day, dodging the swarming yellow jackets, I grabbed one and tossed it in the air. It was a true lightbulb moment for my 9-year-old self. What can I do with these apples just lying on the ground waiting for my grandma's car to smash them into obliteration? Then, in between the swarming yellow jackets around my head, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a baseball bat. It hit me, not the yellow jackets, but the bat -- not literally, but figuratively. I could round up a bunch of those nasty apples, throw them in the air and swing the bat.
And so, I commenced to doing that.
The bat had to weigh almost 200 pounds. The apples were sticky, some even rotten, but boy would they make a nice splat on the bat. Some would fly away and some would turn into apple juice. So, I found a bucket, filled it to the top with apples and set up the bases made out of whatever I could find. Yes, we played baseball with an old heavy bat and those little green apples on a rocky driveway.
It's what we had in the late 80s. We didn't have cell phones or cool video games, although the Nintendo was out, just the imagination of a child. We found ways to entertain ourselves. Plus, our parents pushed us out the door every morning during the summer.
Well, this takes me back to the GHSA's decision to allow our athletes to condition without any footballs, basketballs, softballs, baseballs, etc and one thing comes to mind -- Duck Tape.
Duck Tape ... oh how great thou art. It can be applied to anything, especially the good sticky stuff. You can patch a hose, fix a tent, fix a loose car bumper, hide a split in your pants and even pull a splinter out of your hand. There are many great uses for the DT.
After graduating from the apple tree, we began making balls out of DT. Now, granted, we did have real baseballs, footballs and basketballs lying around the yard, but it was just more fun to be creative. I also found any type of tape, except the Christmas present stuff, worked. Oh, and electrical tape works as well. It's a bit easier to form a ball.
So, here's my pitch, coaches. Since you can't use real footballs, baseballs, basketballs, or softballs, make them out of tape. And when you finish, make sure you attach Clorox wipes on the outside of the ball. This way, you'll comply with the "shared equipment" argument.
Of course, I am totally kidding about using Duck Tape balls during the conditioning-only period. Hopefully, in July, our high school athletes will be back on the field with equipment, prepping for the upcoming season. However, I did smash those apples with a bat and made tape balls as a kid.
