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Home > Blogs > High School Huddle > Archives > 2009 > October > 13 > Entry
Missing Homecoming, and then practice
TIPP CITY — Alex Trotter said the toughest phone call wasn’t to his coach about his sickness, but to his Homecoming date.
“I started feeling really bad at about 3 or 4,” said Trotter, a Tippecanoe tight end and defensive end, about the flu arrival on Saturday, Oct. 3. “So I called my date and said I couldn’t go.”
How did she take it?
“Oh, she was so mad,” he said.
I was talking with Trotter this afternoon about preparing for and playing football with the flu, which has been a big storyline in the Miami Valley this season. Almost every team has been touched at some point by the flu bug, and some more than most. Tipp, for instance, had to push off its Oct. 9 game against Bellefontaine because of mass sickness at the school.
The schools made up the game on Sunday, and Tipp won the significant matchup. That came after a week of wondering how many players would be there (coach Charlie Burgbacher said as many as 28 of his 45 varsity players missed school last Wednesday) and preparing for the difficult physical matchup with weakened players.
The problems had started the previous Saturday, affecting some, like Trotter, on their Homecoming plans.
“Well, the guy you’re gonna talk to next,” Trotter said of teammate Jon Bruce, the next interview, “he took her instead.”
But even though Bruce made it to the dance, he missed some school and also had to rally to return to the field. The Tipp center talked about the difficulties of wearing pads and being physical after missing conditioning and practice.
“It just feels like you’re carrying a bigger load,” Bruce said. “Everything seems like it’s going slower, the helmet is heavier. Everything is just different.”
With three regular-season games remaining, teams could face challenges in fielding their top players weakened by illness as those wins become even more important for the playoff push. It will be a key storyline through the end of October.
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