69 Fayette public schools’ athletes were quarantined this week. COVID-19 cases up.
Nearly 70 student athletes in Fayette County Schools were quarantined this week because they were exposed to someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
But there has been no move by the district to shut down its athletics programs in their entirety as the cases have remained isolated among the individual teams.
“That’s something we are doing to be safe with our teams,” Fayette high school director James McMillin said of the quarantines at Monday’s school board meeting.
As of 10 a.m. Monday, 38 student athletes in Fayette County Schools had tested positive for coronavirus since late August. That’s up from Oct. 14, when 24 student athletes in the district had tested positive.
When a Bryan Station High basketball player tested positive after a practice, district officials quarantined the entire team of 21 players while the Lexington-Fayette Health Department conducted contact tracing.
Meanwhile, Tates Creek quarantined 18 basketball players after a player tested positive following practice, McMillin said.
One coach from Morton Middle School was in quarantine this week.
Twenty-eight players on the Tates Creek football team were placed in quarantine after some Pulaski County players tested positive Oct. 30 after the Tates Creek-Pulaski County football game.
That quarantine initially would have prevented Tates Creek from participating in the high school football playoffs under its original schedule. But the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on Saturday announced the playoffs would be postponed one week. The delay will allow Tates Creek to play, Coach Jonathan Smith has confirmed to the Herald-Leader.
The KHSAA has maintained that it will conduct a football postseason amid the pandemic, but urged member schools to use the football postponement to reevaluate their safety measures if they choose to play. At a Fayette school athletic directors meeting Monday, district officials decided to limit fans at games to two fans or less per player. The fans have to be within a player’s immediate household.
The KHSAA Board of Control is scheduled to meet Wednesday and more discussion about football and the upcoming basketball and wrestling seasons is likely. The KHSAA has seen the successful completion of its cross country, soccer and volleyball seasons
But there have been a number of disruptions across the state. In Lexington, The Tates Creek and Lexington Catholic volleyball teams had to be isolated for two weeks mid-season and Frederick Douglass’ volleyball team was shut down ahead of its district tournament. Two city football rivalry games were canceled last month due to a COVID case on Henry Clay’s football team that created a contract tracing issue for Lafayette. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lafayette and Tates Creek played the following week. Henry Clay saw the rest of its regular season canceled, but it could play in the postseason.
While there has been no state-ordered shutdown of high school athletics — as happened with spring sports and the basketball postseason — the significant growth in COVID-19 cases and the corresponding incidence rate used by the state has put more pressure on districts to cancel regular season games.
KHSAA and state Department of Education guidance on “red” or “critical” counties with the highest levels of virus spread urges — but does not require — teams to shut down. The final week of football’s regular season saw dozens of games canceled over concerns about playing teams in “red” counties. At the same time, most teams that have remained alive in the postseasons of other sports have backed out of their postseasons over actual COVID-19 cases on their teams, not because of “red” county issues.
Athletes have been playing on Fayette schools teams since fall as the county has gone into and out of the “red” a number of times. But the district has only had limited in-person classes. Students are largely learning from home.
McMillin said the district had cut back on practices, had been working with the health department and was staying within KHSAA guidelines on curbing the pandemic.
The Kentucky K-12 School COVID-19 report said that as of Nov. 10, in total, 403 students — athletes and others — have tested positive for the coronavirus along with 30 staff members. In the last 14 days, 46 Fayette students tested positive.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 9:05 AM.
