News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech wants to make sure the community will be protected as high school football fans gather from across the state Thursday through Saturday.
The campus will host the Blue Cross Bowl this weekend. Tennessee Tech Athletic Director Mark Wilson said preventing Tucker Stadium from becoming an outbreak is everybody’s main concern.
“We do not want a super spreader event in our community,” Wilson said. “So that is why encouraging masking, requiring masking, doing the temperature checks and making sure people are distanced. Those are the keys.”
All fans will be temperature checked while wearing a mask. Wilson said once fans are settled and spaced, face coverings can be removed. TSSAA will have officials controlling the crowd to prevent regathering.
Wilson said past graduations and planned Tech football games have made implementing these COVID precautions easier.
“Every event that we have had there with high school graduations, a couple of high school football games earlier in the fall, and the planning Tennessee Tech has done for our own games, even though we have not had a game. All of that assists us and helps us and gives us direction to be able to provide a safe environment.”
TSSAA Director Bernard Childress Monday held a conference call with the leaders from all 18 high schools playing this weekend expressing the importance of following guidelines. Wilson said school leaders were reminded of the importance of adhering to COVID guidelines.
