MOULTRIE – The occasion finally arrived, and what a time for it to arrive.

This is the week – Thursday being the precise day – of the one-year anniversary for Justin Rogers as the head football coach of the Colquitt County High Packers. It’s an old cliche, but it was a year with its ups and its downs.

The biggest “up” for Rogers would be getting to know the people – the players and the supporters of Colquitt County football – and getting the program going again after a month without a full-time leader. Other “ups” would be summertime accomplishments at college 7-on-7s and winning that first game over North Gwinnett at the Corky Kell classic. There were some “downs” with losses in both trips to Valdosta and a playoff game at Parkview, but next came more “ups” by recognizing players and supporters at the annual football banquet and overseeing nine seniors sign their college letters-of-intent at two National Signing Day ceremonies.

But in March, it had to be the “down” of all “downs” when the coronavirus pandemic struck not only in Georgia but the entire United States and forced state officials to shut down public schools and cancel spring sports activities. One of those activities was spring football practice, which Rogers hoped to culminate with a spring scrimmage game on May 15 on the new synthetic turf on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Rogers knows, in mid-April, it will still be more than a month at the very least until he can gather with the entire Packer football roster and coaching staff for some real face-to-face work. But he also recognizes this crisis is impacting far more important matters than one high school team.

“It’s frustrating, but I think everybody in America right now is frustrated,” said Rogers as he was preparing for a “team meeting” on Monday. “I understand the importance of everything going on right now and how serious this virus is.

“You were looking forward to having a full offseason. You were looking forward to being able to build relationships and continue to grow this thing organically through those relationships. Unfortunately that’s been taken from us. Last year, I got here late. This year, it’s worse in the fact you get pulled away from it. It’s a little disheartening, but I keep that in perspective because of what’s really going on in our society.”

Yes, Rogers was in the middle of putting together a PowerPoint for a team meeting. But it’s a meeting where he will be at home and others will be at their homes much like any other business must do in a shelter-in-place environment.

“We’re still working from afar,” said Rogers. “We’re still having staff meetings every week, position meetings. We’re sending out workouts. All of the meetings are through the internet, through FaceTime, through video conferencing because we can’t get together. We want to try to keep things as close to normal as humanly possible, which is extremely difficult.”

The players are naturally eager to get back on the field.

“I think you hear that throughout the country,” said Rogers. “We completely understand why we can’t.”

And so the waiting game continues until the go-ahead signal arrives, be it from the Governor’s office or the Georgia High School Association. Then what do you do? Will there be adjustments to the rules of what a football team can do and for how long. Will there need to be more conditioning before you can think about running a route, hitting a tackling dummy, or having full contact period? The new season for Colquitt County begins Aug. 21 at Marietta High, whose team is waiting for answers those same questions.

“You have to be creative,” said Rogers. “You have to find ways to hopefully move the bar forward and the program forward in this era. It’s no different than what every college team is dealing with right now. Every high school team is dealing with it now. Every school is trying to figure out how to move forward (with education) even though they are not in the building. Every organization is having to re-evaluate. Restaurants are trying to figure out how to continue to meet status quo through takeouts. We’re not any different than any other organization. We’re trying to navigate the tide, too, and keep things moving and progressing.

“There’s no playbook for this. No book you can read and call it out and find out how others are doing it. You have to think outside the box given your own situation.”

As far as what the GHSA may mandate for football preparations, Rogers said it’s probably too early to be hearing about anything like that. Again, the biggest unknown factor is when you can get started, which will then say how much time there is between that date and the season opener.

“I know the GHSA is in talks about how the summer might look,” he said. “And depending on if we get a summer, what the season might look like.

“As football coaches, we always like to have a destination so we know we are working towards this. Each week, we have a Friday night game. We have a 10-game regular season. We know we are working toward that Friday night game. Or we are working towards putting ourselves in a situation at the end of the season to be able to have postseason play. You always have a destination that’s in sight, and you plan your work to get there. Right now, we are at a moment when there’s no destination. We don’t know what we’re working toward. You can’t make adjustments until you get that.”

Rogers does know when things like a 7-on-7 or a padded OTA camp would be, but he also knows that’s subject to change. Most of the 7-on-7s happen on college campuses like Georgia and Florida State, but will they be allowed to host such events? Nobody may need this setting more than Colquitt County, which has a quarterback competition on hold.

But it’s not just quarterback; other starting positions for the 2020 Packers are up for grabs.

“We live in the greatest country in the world,” said Rogers about his confidence that football will get going and start on time. “I have full confidence with all the people here and the innovations we have within our country. They’ll find a vaccine for this deal. I think it will be sooner rather than later. But we have to be safe about everything we’re doing.”

The recruiting process hasn’t slowed down either, though it is taking on a different look. Rogers said the colleges are calling him and assistant coach Troy Hobbs “nonstop” though they are unable to make personal visits or have the recruits visiting them.

“It’s an exciting time for a lot of our players,” said Rogers.