Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports 

IOWA CITY  – More than six months into dealing and coping with a global pandemic, what used to seem unrealistic is now part of the new normal.

Like for example, a Class A football team reaching out to host a Class 4A team just for a chance to compete on a Friday night.

That’s the unusual situation right now during these surreal times caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

It was announced on Wednesday that Class A power Regina would face Class 4A opponent Pleasant Valley in the season opener on Friday at Regina.

Regina was originally scheduled to face Dyersville Beckman on Friday, but Beckman had to cancel because of concerns about the coronavirus.

That left the Regina coaches scrambling to find an opponent, and Pleasant Valley, despite being in Class 4A, was the best option.

“We were trying to scramble to see if we could get a neutral site for a game and that wasn’t working out,” Regina head coach Marv Cook said Wednesday. “So then I think someone saw a post yesterday that maybe (Pleasant Valley) was looking for a game.

“So it’s relatively close, within an hour for the most part, or right at an hour. And they were willing to travel.”

Cook is fully aware that his team will face a monumental challenge on Friday against a much bigger school, but he appreciates the opportunity to compete and to have life feel normal on a Friday night.

“It’s just that I want our kids to play,” said Cook, who is entering his 14th season as the Regina head coach. “You just don’t know what the future holds. Kind of our mindset has been every day that the state allows us to go out and play football and have fun doing it, we’re going to try and take advantage of it.

“And the kids have done a good job with that. So if they have an opportunity to play football, I want them to play and I want to give them that opportunity. So I don’t want to miss out on a Friday night if they have a chance to play.” Now it’s going to be an incredibly daunting task for us. But our kids have always kind of rallied to the occasion, and hopefully, they’ll be ready to step up and take on the challenge.”

And while Cook has the utmost respect for Pleasant Valley as a Class 4A opponent, he also believes strongly in his players, which includes his son and starting quarterback, Ashton Cook, who is a senior.

Some of the players from both teams also have competed against each other in other sports and Marv Cook thinks that will help his players from a confidence standpoint.

“A lot of these kids have crossed over and played club soccer together or club baseball, club basketball,” Marv Cook said. “So they’ve competed against each other in numerous other sports. Football is just another chance to compete and get on the field.

“And a lot of our kids are pretty good size kids and have played at a pretty high level. So it’s just comes down to can we match up with the numbers part of it, which is going to be obviously difficult for us. But we’ve got a great turnout this year. We’ve got a lot of kids that want to come out and be a part of what we’re doing with Regina football.”

Regina finished 9-3 last season and advanced to the Class 1A state semifinals, while Pleasant Valley finished 4-5 last season and didn’t qualify for the Class 4A playoffs.

The Regals have won six state titles under Marv Cook, with the last coming in 2015.

“Every time you go out and compete you learn something,” said Marv Cook, a former Iowa All-America tight end and NFL All-Pro. “And obviously, when you step up in class literally, it forces you to play faster and play with a better pad level, play more physical and play cleaner.

“So that’s the challenge we’re going to have. But our kids have done that all along the way. So I expect them to give their utmost effort, and hopefully, they’ll be excited about the challenge and the opportunity.”

Cook said his team was practicing on Tuesday when word started to break that Pleasant Valley might be an option.

“We practiced Monday with really kind of knowing that we wouldn’t have a game, or that we might not have a game,” Cook said. “And then Tuesday was kind of similar. We weren’t sure. And then we kind of had some news break that maybe we would be able to pick this up. And then about half way through practice we kind of started talking about it, that we may have an opponent for Friday.

“So we kind of locked it down a little bit and gave them a sense of urgency that we need to make sure that we take advantage of this last hour of practice.”

Friday’s game will start at 7 p.m. and will have a limited number of fans in order to assure social distancing.

Regina got a taste of normalcy when it faced West High in a controlled scrimmage last Friday.

“Honestly, it’s kind of been literally every day you just enjoy that you get to go and practice football,” Marv Cook said. “And a lot of people aren’t. So I think they’re excited about the fact that they get to go out and play.

“Last Friday, in a weird sort of way almost felt, oh, my gosh, normalcy. You looked out on the field and they were playing football. I wasn’t sure we’d get to this two months ago.”

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