Monday Night Football for Gibsonburg and Hopewell-Loudon

GIBSONBURG, Ohio (WTVG) - In non-COVID times, orange and black should fill the bleaches inside the stadium at Gibsonburg High school for a football game in the fall.

“Friday nights are big here in Gibsonburg,” Gibsonburg head coach Joe Wyant said. “It’s a small community and it’s what they live for is Friday nights.”

Not Friday night in Gibsonburg.

Some varsity football teams play Saturday games. That too is not happening for the Golden Bears this weekend.

A tweet from Wednesday on the Gibsonburg Athletics account says it all.

“At first I was like, ’That is crazy,’” Gibsonburg wing back Philip Davies said. “In my high school career, I’ve never even seen a Monday night game for high school.”

Hopewell-Loudon is back on the practice field tonight for the first time after some in the school tested positive in August for COVID-19. The district also pushed back the start of the school year from last week to September 9th.

For Gibsonburg, its football schedule this week resembles that of the Mid-American Conference in November.

The Golden Bears have ten days off before this game Monday and three days off on the backside before kicking off the next game September 11th.

“This whole year has been pretty unconventional,” Wyant said. “It makes me really think back how maybe I took everything for granted in the past after 40 years of this and all of sudden this year we’ve gotta be more flexible. It’s all about flexibility. We’re going to survive.

“We’re just trying to get as many games in as we can,” Davies said. “I think it’s fun. I like playing one after another, one after another.”

At this moment, it will be a labor of love for these two teams and schools come

“I’m not going to tell you it’s this ’great’ atmosphere but at least our kids get to play,” Gibsonburg athletic director Jay Morelock said. “We’ll be able to get ten games in now instead of nine.. For us, every game we can play is a blessing.”

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