After a lost 2020 football season, the Montana Grizzlies will play a spring game on April 10 as they host Central Washington, but it is not clear yet whether there will be fans in the stands.

University of Montana Athletic Director Kent Haslam provided details to KGVO on Friday.

“We were able to get Central Washington, the team we were supposed to have hosted back in September, to agree to come back and play us on April 10,” said Haslam. “The question I keep getting asked is am I going to be able to get in and watch, and my answer is, I don't know. We're going to work through those things but we're just glad to get structure have a have a game schedule so we can start to plan for our spring for our football student athletes and coaches.”

Haslam said whether or not there will be fans allowed inside Washington Grizzly Stadium will be up to the Missoula City County Health Department.

“There are very structured protocols will have to follow and Central Washington will have to follow that are guidelines from the NCAA regarding testing of the participants,” he said. “So we'll follow all those and then it'll be a matter of just working with the with the City County Health Department and they've been great to work with us as we get volleyball, basketball, soccer and softball going, as well.”

Haslam said he is hopeful that by April 10 that there will be enough fans vaccinated that some will be allowed inside the stadium for the game.

“I’ll be sitting down with them and seeing if there's not a way that we can get a few thousand fans in the stadium, so we could generate a little revenue and I think we can do that in a in a healthy way,” he said. “Especially now that we know so much more about the virus and vaccines are starting to be distributed. So we're hopeful but we'll look for their guidance.”

Haslam said scheduling the spring game also provides a structure upon which to build stability and continuity for the athletic program.

“At least we'd like to get one more home game so that our student athletes could compete,” he said. “And it's nice to know that we've got a game scheduled. And then the nice thing about that too is we can start to plan our practices back from that date abiding by the NCAA practice calendar.”

Montana last saw game action in the fall of 2019 as well, going 10-4 overall, 6-2 in Big Sky Conference play.

 

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