‘I need to be here if they are going to be here’: Rickards boy’s head coach considered sitting out season due to COVID-19

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Long-time Rickards High School boy’s basketball head coach Eli Bryant considered sitting out this season entirely due to COVID-19 concerns.

Bryant, 74, tells WCTV he’d be foolish to act as though everything is normal, especially as cases spike. But, despite his reservations, Bryant has decided that as long as his team presses on, so will he.

“All my assistants and the kids, I couldn’t say, ‘No, we aren’t going to play,” Bryant said. “As the leader of my team, I need to be here if they are going to be here. If it were my call, no we wouldn’t play until this thing got some semblance of a vaccine or a treatment.”

The Raiders are set to play 11 games this season. Rickards opens the year against Chiles on December 8.