MOULTRIE – Colquitt County football coach Justin Rogers says he was not surprised when the Georgia High School Association agreed on Monday to delay the start of the 2020 football season by two weeks.

What he was pleased to hear was that the GHSA was planning to have a full 10-game season with a complete five-week playoff schedule as well.

The Packers season-opener, originally scheduled for Friday, Aug. 21, on the road against defending Class 7A state champion Marietta, will now be played on Friday, Sept. 4.

And the scrimmage at Lee County also remains on the schedule, having been moved from Aug. 7 to Aug. 21.

“Everything has just been moved back two weeks,” Rogers said, adding that he would not have been surprised if the GHSA had opted for shortened, perhaps an eight-game, season.

The state championship games, originally scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 10-12, would fall on Christmas weekend if moved two weeks.

GHSA executive director Robin Hines said Tuesday that the games are now likely to be played Dec. 28-30 at Georgia State Stadium in Atlanta.

With the scope of the season now solidified, Rogers now is eager to learn the GHSA’s plans for practices heading into the season.

Under the organization’s Coronavirus Guidance Plan, state football teams have had restricted summer work.

Coaches can work with groups of no more than 50 players; locker rooms are not available; players must take their own water bottles to practices; and, before Monday, players were unable to wear helmets during workouts.

The GHSA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Council is expected to meet Wednesday and issue guidance on how teams can proceed with the one-week acclimation period slated to start on Monday, July 27.

Football teams can begin full-pads practices on Aug. 1.

“I hope we’ll know what we can do day-to-day by later this week,” Rogers said. “We need to know that so we can start to build a football team. With our groups of 40 kids, we just are not building the relationships we need.”

GHSA has not weighed in on how schools will handle the issue of attendance at games. Will social distancing be required in the stands? Will fans be required to wear face masks?

Rogers said he was not sure how those problems will be addressed, but said GHSA might leave those decisions up to individual communities.

The Packers have started re-learning how to practice while wearing a helmet this week and the team has begun working outdoors.

Rogers said Colquitt County will have junior varsity, ninth-grade, eighth-grade, seventh-grade and sixth-grade football teams this season.