SportsThought, by Tony Rayl

First goal? Get to four games
Every high school football team’s mantra right now should simply be, “Play four games.”
In this weird and wacky world of 2020, Colorado’s late decision to play football in the fall meant just a six-game season.
A team has to play at least four games to be playoff eligible.
Yuma’s Indians will be three-fourths of the way there if they can get in Friday night’s home game against Highland. It looks promising the two teams will get together, despite the fact the game will be played in frigid conditions. The schools will have even less fans in the stands, thanks to Yuma County being put on “Safer at Home Level 2” after nearly two months of rising COVID cases.
It likely will be in the low 30s, with a stiff wind, when the game kicks off at 7 p.m., so maybe those unhappy about not being able to attend the football games won’t care so much for one week.
If the Tribe can pull off the win, it will be 1-1 in conference play, 2-1 overall, and just one game from playoff eligibility.
That’s no small thing. True, Limon looks like a sure bet to win another 1A title, and Wray has been impressive.
However, the bigger battle might be against the novel coronavirus, not the other NCC teams. Burlington and Holyoke already have lost a game — against each other — due to cases in Burlington, and the Cougars might be down to the bare minimum of four games by the time the Indians head to Kit Carson County next week.
Of all the NCC teams, Holyoke and Wiggins seem to be in the best shape in regards to now screwing themselves with COVID-19 cases. Holyoke’s Phillips County has had less than eight new cases in the past two weeks, while Yuma County had 46. Morgan County has got a great grip on the novel coronavirus since having a summer spike.
Limon’s Lincoln County, Highland’s Weld County, and Yuma’s and Wray’s Yuma County meanwhile struggle with keeping cases under control.
One more outbreak of cases, forcing two weeks of quarantining, will put any of those teams on the precipice of even being playoff eligible.
If nothing else, maybe the love of Yuma Indians football will convince many to get with the program. Wear a face covering in indoor spaces, social distance, wash hands frequently, bring the cases down. Do it for football, because it does not seem anything else can convince you to take this seriously.
Honestly? Limon is an incredible football machine. I hope the Badgers make the playoffs because that is such a good outfit. Very impressive.
Then the Indians have very good teams in Holyoke and Wray to deal with inside the NCC. Luckily, the Tribe does not play Holyoke in this weird season, but the Indians probably are going to have to win all the rest of their games to have a shot at the eight-team playoff field.