Bomar, Goats trying to stay positive, keep preparing

Groesbeck football coach and athletic director Jerry Bomar liked what he was seeing from his players during the football offseason period.

Kids were competing in other sports. Kids were lifting weights and working out. Strides were being made during an important period in the building of the Goats’ program.

And then, POW! The Covid-19 pandemic escalated while the students were on spring break and they never went back to school. The Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) banned all activities, including athletic contests and practices, until at least May 4.

“This has been real hard for us,” Bomar said, “because we came in new and we’re trying to rebuild a program that was down. This offseason was huge for us. We were making really good progress with our young kids who are going to be ninth-graders and our high school kids. April is a crucial time. And then we do a ton of football in May. We just lost that, and it really hurt us.”

Bomar has coached at larger schools and smaller schools. He’s been at schools that are allowed to have spring football. And he’s been at schools, such as Groesbeck, which are smaller and do not have a formal spring football campaign.

“They need to be in that athletic period every day,” Bomar said. “We were going to work three days a week on football starting April 1, until May 1, and then five days a week until summer. That’s hard on you.

“At smaller schools, we had spring ball in our athletic period. You don’t have pads on. Three days a week starting April 1 we got to do football, offense and defense. You start teaching all this. We’ve got our whole group back. We wanted to add things we felt like we need to do this year to make us better. We’re not getting to do that. That’s very frustrating to me as a coach.”

Bomar said the coaches had agreed on how they would go about maximizing the offseason time and improving for the coming year.

“This is the part of the year, usually in the offseason program, you have a theme and a direction with your team,” Bomar said. “You’re going to look at your team and say, what do we need to do to be competitive scheme-wise, offensively and defensively?

“I’ve gone back and looked at film. I analyzed our program with our coaches and we’ve come to a consensus in the spring, this is where we need to go, offensively and defensively. We were getting ready to start implementing that with our kids. This put a stop to that.”

One of the more difficult aspects of the shut-down is that Bomar and his coaches did not get to talk with their athletes face-to-face. They were coming off spring break when the school closures began.

“When this happened, we knew it was just starting to come out in the press,” Bomar said. “It happened on a Friday night. Our school was out. We didn’t now what was going to happen the next week. We met with the superintendent the Sunday before we were supposed to start school after spring break and he decided not to have school.

“We had no way to talk to our kids, to explain it to them. We had spring break and by the end of spring break it got to that point where schools were closing. My coaches never had a face-to-face visit with (their athletes).”

Bomar continues to go into the office each morning, planning to hit the ground running when the shut-down is lifted. And he’s trying to keep students engaged in working out to stay in shape on their own.

“It’s very hard,” he said. “Not all these kids have access to weight equipment or things like that. We send them out a workout daily and weekly online, and then ask them to kind of report in that they’ve done it or tell us what they’re doing.

“We give each of them a weight workout if they have access. If they don’t, you have to use your imagination. An imagination workout. That’s kind of what it all boils down to.”

Bomar also has been sending his offensive linemen information about the offense.

“I sent something out to our players on the line, blocking schemes and some things about the running game we’re going to put in,” he said. “Our coaches are in limbo. They’re still working as teachers. I’m trying to get the scheme all together and be ready if and when we get that opportunity.”

Bomar lamented the fate of his seniors who have seen their final athletic season shortened and, for all intents and purposes, cancelled.

“I feel very sorry for our seniors in our spring sports,” he said. “We had some kids that were going to have great springs. We had two doubles teams in tennis that had a chance to win the state championship. We had kids in softball and baseball, some kids in track, powerlifting, that were going to do some good things. They didn’t get to. This probably wiped all that out. I feel bad for all these kids. You work real hard and it’s your senior year and it gets pulled out from under your feet.”

While Bomar is preparing for the end of the shut-down, he acknowledged that the situation is fluid and timelines for returning are subject to change.

“I think all that stuff is going to trickle down from the college and pro level,” he said. “If all that stuff gets cancelled and there’s no school, there won’t be any sports or extracurricular activities. There won’t be any athletics unless there’s school. And if there’s not school, they’re not going to have athletics.”

Bomar said it’s important to the athletes who play in the fall to get back out on the field or the court and show what they can do when the time comes. For now, though, they must try to stay in shape on their own.

“It’s kind of sad,” Bomar said. “We were really making progress. When life gives you lemons, you’ve got to make lemonade. We’re making gallons of lemonade.”