Matt Paulsen is in his first season heading the Greene County High School baseball program. The former Greene County High School player and assistant coach wasn’t sure there would be a 2020 season. He talked with Raccoon Valley Radio about his reaction to the news last week. “First of all, just excited! With all the unknowns the past couple months my hope was high, but my expectations weren’t terribly high, just with everything going on. But when the Governor okay’ed it, and the Iowa High School Athletic Association put it out that we would move forward with the season, we were just excited!”

There are several restrictions and guidelines, and the coach talked about some of those in place for practices when those begin on June 1. “For practices, it looks like the biggest restriction is not being able to use the dugout, which isn’t going to hinder how we practice. Kids will be responsible for bringing their own water, sports drink, or whatever that might be, and for keeping their personal things separate. As as the ins and outs of practices, what’s nice about baseball is we don’t have to get terribly close to people, especially for practice. We start playing catch well over six feet apart anyway, so keeping social distancing and following those guidelines, as far as practice goes, we should be able to accommodate fairly easily.”

June 15 is the first competition date. Activities Director Todd Gordon told Raccoon Valley Radio the Rams would play a 14-game baseball and softball schedule comprised of only Heart of Iowa Activities Conference games.