Raptor Football Team Faces Challenges Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic

September 24, 2020

The 2020 Raptors football team has to do things a little different this year as a result of the coronavirus. In order to ensure the virus doesn’t spread between players, many precautions are taken. First, each player has their temperature taken before each practice. Along with this, a few questions must be answered by each player such as, “are you taking any fever-reducing medication?” or “have you come in contact with anyone with COVID in the past two weeks?”. During practice, players have to stay six feet apart at all times with the exception of hitting drills. After practices, players are required to wash all of the equipment in the locker rooms. Here, there can only be four people at a time and everyone must wear a mask. Although there are apparent challenges to keep the team as safe as possible, we are thankful that there will be a season this year.

Kicking off the season, the Raptors will be playing at Battery Creek on September 25th. Junior, William Hyatt will be leading the offense this year as starting quarterback. Although Hyatt has never played on the Raptors football team before, his hard work and talent has earned him the starting position. On the other side of the field, senior, John Rowe as starting cornerback comments on the game saying “we are really looking forward to our opening game this Friday. We have a lot of new players this season and I know all of us are ready to get at it”.

The 2020 Raptors football team roster follows:

The Raptors will play their first home game against North Charleston, but this year the place will be different. They won’t be playing at Danny Jones instead, they will be breaking in the new District 4 stadium! The new facility will be shared between Academic Magnet, Military Magnet, North Charleston, and R.B. Stall high schools. Features of the new stadium include 6,000 seats (4,000 home and 2,000 away), a brand new jumbotron, and turf fields. Each high school will rotate using the stadium based on their schedule. As of right now, parents have to RSVP to gain a spot in the stadium while we are still waiting for more information pertaining to student fans. The football team is excited to call this their new home and hopes to take the first home victory on October 9th. Go Raptors!