Perhaps the only thing hitting harder than the linemen on area high school football fields is COVID dropping the boom on some teams' seasons.
COVID-related issues have forced the cancellation of four local games this week - and it's only Tuesday.
 
Among them - Jackson Milton vs. Mineral Ridge. The situation has forced contact tracing measures into overdrive.
 
"When you get to sports, it becomes a whole other situation - if you're indoor, if you're outdoor," says Weathersfield Local Schools superintendent Damon Dohar. "All those things combined, it is very complicated."
 
Contact tracing is done by each school in each district, which then reports the results back to the county health department. Mahoning County Public Health tells 21 News kids having to quarantine because of exposure is what's driving these cancellations.
 
"We just had to shut down the junior high volleyball program because of a positive case," says Sebring Local Schools K-12 principal Joe Krumpak. "I think we've got 25 kids on quarantine in the past two days."
 
Sebring also had to cancel this week's football game against Lowellville.
 
But for as taxing as all this is for administrators and staff, experience has been a valuable teacher.
 
"Reflecting back to last year we...got pretty efficient at canceling and rescheduling," said Krumpak.
 
21 Sports Director Dana Balash says the cancellations likely won't affect teams' playoff chances.
The minimum number of games to qualify is five, and no area team is close to that number.