KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Back from an extended absence, a handful of high school football teams in Kansas City, Kansas, are anxiously anticipating their return to the gridiron.
Speaking at an area media day, teams detailed their time away from the field and what excites them most about the return of football.
“It was probably the first fall I've had off in more than a decade,” Sumner Academy head coach Andrew Wright said. “They saw their friends not have a season and so they're just fired up and ready to go.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, fall sports were shelved in the district last year.
With dreams delayed, not derailed, the passion players and coaches have for competition grew even stronger.
“We're just really excited to play and work extremely hard,” Camron Smith, head coach at Washington High School, said.
Though fall sports were canceled last year, the work didn't stop for the athletes.
“My team and I, we didn't stop lifting weights," Jose Ramirez, who's the quarterback at Wyandotte High School, said. "That's the only thing we could do really, and we just kept grinding it out."
Tuesday's media day, which was sponsored by DiPasquale Moore LLC, featured 10 different schools from around the Kansas City area.
