Along with other high school teams across the state, Coach Chris Grooms and the Community Viking football team have made adjustments to the COVID-19 pandemic as the scheduled start of the 2020 season gets closer.

While Grooms was not able to practice with his team during the spring, he saw the positive side of players spending more time at home.

"It put us behind, but it gave us a good time to be at home and reflect on life," Grooms said. "But the kids were nice and excited when we were able to get back."

Other teams were in the same boat and were not able to practice during the spring.

"Nobody was getting a leg up," Grooms said. "We were all sitting at home watching TV."

For a three-week period that will end on June 21, the Vikings have been able to enjoy some limited activities that brought the team together.

"For the last three weeks, we knew we had to social distance, so we put our kids in three different sections," Grooms said.

"We went 45 minutes with our o-line, making sure they were six feet apart. "We had our o-line, our quarterbacks, and our running backs apart."

"Our next 45 minutes were with our slots and tight ends," Grooms added. "Then our next 45-minute session was with the wide receivers."

"It was easy and gave us a lot of one-on-one time," Grooms said. "We slowly pieced our game book together that way."

Starting June 22, the TSSAA mandated dead period will take place which will keep the team separated until July 6.

"With all of the restrictions in the weight room and with social distancing and no spotters, we went military style working out on the practice field," Grooms said. "That way we kept our distance and we're hoping after dead period to use the weight room and some equipment however we can get it in."

Despite the uncertainty of the pandemic and how events will play out, Grooms has a schedule for July.

"As of now, on July 9, we're set up at Riverdale for a 7-on-7, which is due to change," Grooms said. "We've not been able to compete and go out there and do 7-on-7s against each other yet, so I'm not sure if it's going to be cleared by then or not."

The last three weeks have given the freshmen a chance to join the team.

"The majority of the freshmen have come over. You still have a couple that transfer in and they're able to join the team," Grooms said.

"Everything else, we're working as-is and waiting to go to pads on July 27, which is the first day of football tryouts."

"Right now, we have 31 players," Grooms added. "It's one of the things Coach Bowling and I talked about. Instead of having a lot of numbers and people standing around, we're going to cut down the numbers and get people who really want to play football."

The theme of not being sure continues as the team moves into July and August.

"We don't have a clue. You just hope," Grooms said. "You hope you're playing on August 21 against Cornersville."

"But if it keeps going on and it pushes you back, we'll adjust how we can," Grooms added.

"You don't know what it's going to look like, if fans are there or if fans are not there. You've just got to prepare how you can."