In the year since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Chatham County on March 20, 2020, more than 350 people have died due to the virus. This article is one in a series that examines how individuals have dealt with a year-long crisis and have helped pull the community through the pandemic.
It’s right there in the name, Richmond Hill High School. But to Mickey Bayens and others who work at 1 Wildcat Drive, it’s more than a high school.
“Richmond Hill High School in general to me is a small community,” said Bayens, the athletic director since 2015. “The one portion I work with on a daily basis truly is a large organization with a lot of moving parts with that ultimate goal of doing whatever we can to create top student-athletes.”
The Coastal Empire’s largest high school has about 2,380 students in grades 9-12, and Bayens estimates about one-third — close to 800 — participate on Wildcats teams.
The athletic department could be likened to a small college’s in size, with nearly two dozen varsity sports with the addition of girls flag football last fall. Bass fishing, dance and Esports will join the party next school year.
It’s a full-time job for Bayens, 53, who also has held the title of assistant principal since 2011. All of those parts require people to keep them moving smoothly through the inevitable issues, from student-athlete eligibility, game scheduling, transportation and facilities to inclement weather and on occasion that game-changing ominous phrase, “hurricane warning.”
“From the athletic director’s point of view, you must always remember every day going in being extremely flexible,” Bayens said. “No one day will ever be the same (as another). That’s the amazing thing about this job. Mother Nature can throw a twist as well as what’s going on with COVID.”
Yes, the coronavirus pandemic has in 12 months impacted basically every aspect of our daily lives, and high school athletics have not been spared.
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A year ago, just the threat of COVID-19 shut down sports at every level, and the Georgia High School Association, which oversees the majority of scholastic sports in the state, halted and eventually canceled all spring sports.
“When I think back, for the first time in my 18 years coaching, we had sports canceled,” said Richmond Hill boys and girls tennis coach Tony Dragon, who added flag football coach to his titles. “We’ve never seen anything like that. It was unprecedented. And we didn’t know when we would get it back. It was different. It was weird.”
The stakes had remained high through the summer as fall sports such as football had to severely adjust the routine of preseason strength and conditioning sessions. There was much uncertainty, and the possibility of losing another season was motivation enough for student-athletes to follow federal, state, local and GHSA health and safety protocols administered by the coaches and staff.
“We all had that unfortunate taste, that feeling that GHSA did what they needed to do last spring to pull it,” Bayens said.
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“I think everyone was diligent,” said Matt LeZotte, in his sixth season at the helm of the Wildcats football team. “I think wearing a mask was like putting on your underwear. It just became part of your apparel.”
They wore face masks, washed their hands, keep socially distant, checked temperatures and more. LeZotte said they controlled what they could and stayed away from situations where they couldn’t. The season was on the line.
“If they wanted that to happen, they had to do things the right way,” LeZotte said of his players. “They had to take care of their business. It really came together. We were able to have conversations about it. We were able to adjust the plan and continue to move forward.”
The game plan
The coach said the year to him was about the importance of planning with all of the health-related policies including contact tracing, as well as learning to communicate differently within the staff and with players.
“Second of all, we wouldn’t have been able to (have a season) unless we had tremendous leadership in place, very decisive leadership,” LeZotte said.
Bayens also credited the Bryan County School District and the Richmond Hill High School administration, faculty and coaches for putting students’ safety first while providing extracurricular opportunities.
“We knew that we were going to find a way at Richmond Hill High School to play sports across the board,” Bayens said. “It was really never a question in our minds if we were going to able to play in the summer or even the fall.”
Dragon said many people openly questioned to him, “Why are they practicing for a season that’s never going to happen?” during the fall and winter. He told his tennis teams in January to keep in mind, “they could end this thing at the drop of a hat,” but people are feeling more optimistic and safer as teams played full seasons and vaccines are being distributed.
Not that he’s easing up on the protocols. In tennis, for example, the post-match handshake has been replaced by the tapping of rackets at arm’s length.
“We’re still trying to stay diligent and still trying to continue the things we started on the first day of school all the way up until now,” Dragon said. “We’re trying to stay consistent in what we’ve done since the beginning because we feel it has worked really well.”
While teams have played full seasons, and some made strong runs into the postseason as has become routine at RHHS, they were not immune to some student-athletes testing positive for COVID-19. LeZotte said the football program was fortunate not to have many positive tests, and those that were showed mild or no symptoms. The school followed protocols such as quarantining the students for 14 days and tracing close contact.
A positive test
It’s all been taken very seriously, of course. Early in the timeline, the Richmond Hill community had a very prominent example that it could happen to anyone when Bayens tested positive.
He said one of his family members tested positive, so he got tested. He said he felt tired for about five days. When he got the test result, he was briefly taken aback.
“I said OK, I’ll be fine, I’ll get through it. But it was that initial shock,” Bayens said. “There’s one thing that I believe in is staying positive.”
He followed doctor’s orders, as well as the federal and state protocols, and went into quarantine at home for 14 days in April before making a full recovery, he said.
“I was very fortunate to have a very, very mild case,” he said. “I know other people did not have it as easy.”
LeZotte said “it really starts to hit home” when a person he knows so well and cares about has COVID-19. He checked on Bayens during his quarantine.
“In the end, he returned as strong as he ever was,” LeZotte said. “You see even with it happening, there is light at the end of the tunnel should you get it. You’ve got to stay the course, prepare, if it happens, adjust that plan and continue to move forward.”
Bayens acknowledged that his experience could be an example for others.
“It did happen to me,” he said. “The kids were able to put a name and a face to what COVID was about, but they also realized that if you listen to the professionals, the doctors, you’ll be right back in places and you’ll be OK.”
Bayens, with his positive spirit, actually was referencing future plans for a new school building when he said Richmond Hill High School is always up for a challenge. But he could have been talking about the recent past and the present.
“What you do know in life is that it’s full of change,” Bayens said. “How you react to change separates people. I can assure you the Richmond High coaching staff is prepared for whatever comes our way.”
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
