Hardin navigates wild week to find opponent

One week.

Three different opponents.

It was a wild week for Tupelo head coach Ty Hardin.

With two big time programs. the pontotoc warriors and houston hilltoppers both coming off losses are hoping to rebound here tonight.

A little bit of extra juice for the warriors however, it's senior night tonight.

Festivities begin just a few moments from now with the kick-off at 7 o'clock.

Senior night is usually reserved for the last home game of the season, but we are living in unprecedented times.

High schools are adjusting to the new normal of the coronavirus and no one knows that more than tupelo head coach ty hardin after this week.

Made that happen ."

Normally during the week, coach hardin does his toughest work out here on the practice field.

But this week it was in here in the office.

(ty hardin) i mean i've never been, nobody has ever been a part of anything like this.

(track) the tupelo golden wave was supposed to play grenada tonight.

On monday, they got the call that the team may be going into quarantine.

(ty hardin) i was like look i don't want to chance this, if there was an opportunity for them not to play, i need to be on top of it so i got right on the phone right then and there.

(track) that phone call went to north panola, who accepted coach hardin's offer to come down and play because their opponent also had to go into quarantine.

So coach hardin and the team started preparing for north panola.

Then wednesday night (ty hardin) they came down with it, they had a case and had to cancel on their own.

(track) less than 48 hours until kick-off.

No opponent.

As luck would have it.

West lauderdale's coach reached out the day before to one of hardin's assistants asking if they found someone to play because their opponent went into quarantine.

(ty hardin) when i found out that news about north panola, hey coach, call that guy right now' we're going to play a football game.

(track) three days.

Three different opponents.

Welcome to high school football during the pandemic.

The extra hours.

The extra prep.

Is all worth it because (ty hardin) our kids really want to play, they really want something positive out of it so we just made that happen.

Big game here in pontotoc.

But tupelo, facing another tough, tough opponent, trying avoid that 0-3 hole to start the season.

We'll have highlights from here, highlights from there, highlights from everywhere all across northeast mississippi tonight at 10 o'clock.

Reporting in pontotoc, matt st.

Jean wtva 9 sports.

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