With recent increases in COVID-19 cases since the emergence of the delta variant, how the 2021 high school football season ends is less certain.
For now, the Peoria Panthers enter the last month of offseason preparations thrilled that this year they at least had a true offseason. The stop-and-start nature of the 2020 offseason led to the program essentially shutting things down for more than a month.
“We were catching up so far into last year. At the end we were playing better football. When we ask our kids to go out and do other sports, you’re going to be in a situation where the time you catch up is the summer,” Peoria coach Will Babb said. “We’re excited to have something relatively normal. Is it normal? We’ll have to see from week to week. I’m not doom and gloom, but that’s the reality of it.”
