Many students enjoy going to see the Friday Night Lights at South. But this school year, students have had to watch their players get hurt on the field. 

According to Kyle Brown, a freshman on varsity, 8 or 9 football players have gotten injured in the last couple of weeks. 

Brown said there isn’t an exact reason that so many guys have gotten hurt, but some players just don’t know what to do in some tough situations. 

“The coaches are doing all they can, and there have been a lot of changes,” he said.  

Senior Kyle Clore also plays on varsity as a center and broke his arm while playing. He tallied up the injuries so far for the Patriots. Some changes that were made were spreading out the players on the field to try and minimize contact between players. They also added more padding to the uniforms for more protection, along with changing their offensive strategy to see what fits best. 

“There’s been a broken arm, an ankle sprain, a torn labrum, a broken ankle, concussions, and a fractured tibia,” Clore said.  

Some players are out for a couple of weeks and some for months. Clore said the coaches have tried to minimize the injuries during practice with “less contact and switching up offense.” 

Even though high schools have safety precautions and regulations for contact sports like football, this hasn’t been around for that long. 

John Barnabee, the new head coach of the South football team has been coaching them for three years. He has said that out of all of his years of teaching, even from other schools, this year has had the most injuries, 15 in all. But most of the time, it isn’t really the players’ fault.

“There have been more broken bones than soft tissue and concussion injuries,” Barnabee said. 

He doesn’t know exactly why there have been so many injuries since he knows it isn’t something to do with the equipment or the coaching. Barnabee has been trying to minimize contact between other players by using dummies during practice, this helps the players learn how to tackle without hurting themselves or anyone else. 

“The players have worked really hard, and the injuries that are occurring are a mixture of bad luck,” he said.