I can only imagine the thrill a high school football player must get being able to walk out on to the turf at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It's that hallowed ground where many high school footballers hope to someday tread, either as a college athlete in a big-time bowl game or even as a professional player in the NFL.

For many years the culmination of the high school football season in Louisiana has reached its pinnacle at The 'Dome. That might not happen for high school teams this year as the LHSAA, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association,  has announced they are searching for alternate sites to host this year's Prep Classic.

The reason for the search for alternate sites has to do with COVID-19 restrictions on crowd capacity inside the Superdome. Those capacity limits have been set by the City of New Orleans and even the New Orleans Saints can't seem to get the city to budge.

So, therein lies the need for another place to play. In a memo sent to member schools, the LHSAA said it was looking for venues that could host fans at 25% capacity from December 26th through December 31st. The only drawback to that of course is the threat of inclement weather making the games difficult to play and hard on fans to attend.

There is a history of alternate sites being used by the LHSAA to hold championship games in the past. You might recall Lafayette's Cajun Field and New Orleans Yulman Stadium both hosted championship games last year as Select Schools hosted their own championship games outside of the 'Dome.

While I do think it would be a bit of a let down to not walk the hallowed turf where Drew Brees and Company play. I think it would be an even bigger let down for these athletes to play the most important game of their lives without family and friends to cheer them on. Let's hope the LHSAA can either find alternative sites or the City of New Orleans can create a plan where these games can happen indoors.

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