The Friday Night Lights Are On: RI High School Football Is Back

RHODE ISLAND — High school football's return is back to normal this fall in Rhode Island.

Following a season that was postponed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and moved to the spring of 2021, coaches and officials with the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) are both excited to see the kids hit the gridiron again under the Friday night lights.

"It's exciting. Nothing brings the community together like high school sports," said RIIL Executive Director Michael Lunney.

The 2021 fall football season will look a lot more like it did in 2019. Besides it being in the fall, players won't have to wear masks when they play games or practice outside.

"We're going crazy, it feels good," said Cliff Fortin, the head coach of Exeter-West Greenwich/Prout High School. "During the spring, it was very weird, wearing masks in practice, wearing masks in the game. It was something we never had to deal with, so we had to adapt."

Fortin said he's excited that a full schedule of games and playoffs are back. Last season, teams had to deal with games being canceled because of COVID-19 outbreaks.

"The players, especially the seniors, didn't know if they were going to have an abbreviated season," Fortin said. "We were excited there was going to be playoffs still, the whole nine yards."

However, missing games is still a possibility, with the delta variant causing a pandemic resurgence across the United States.

Lunney is still excited and optimistic about the return of football and other fall sports, but he's also acknowledging the delta variant could become a threat later in the season.

He encouraged coaches and high school athletes to get vaccinated, adding they are "the best tools we have" to combat the virus.

"We still have to be concerned," Lunney said. "It's not completely behind us."

Fortin is also optimistic, and said other coaches and himself are keeping certain pandemic protocols in place to lessen the spread of the delta variant. His rules include: staying away from each other as much as possible at practice, keeping 6 feet of social distance during water breaks, not sharing water bottles, taking equipment home and only having a quarter of the team in the weight room at a time.

If you want to see a game this season, check out this list of some high school schedules compiled by Patch. Not seeing your community? You can find other schedules on the RIIL's website.

• Barrington
• Cranston East
• Cranston West
• Coventry
• East Greenwich
• East Providence
• Mount Hope
• Narraganset
• North Kingstown
• Portsmouth
• Rogers High
• South Kingstown
• Tiverton