Mercer County becomes latest district to suspend sports over COVID-19 map status
Mercer County became the latest Kentucky school district to temporarily shutter most of its athletic programs Sunday because the community’s COVID-19 status elevated to “red” on the state’s incidence rate map.
Titans football coach David Buchanan delivered the news to his team via a Facebook Live post Sunday night.
“It’s my understanding that for now we are paused in athletics at Mercer County schools because we’re in the red,” Buchanan said in the post. “I know that is a huge disappointment, especially after the incredible way our guys have played the last two Friday nights.”
Buchanan is also president of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association and was among the proponents for returning to play amid the pandemic. A group from the KFCA, including Buchanan, met with Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett during the summer to discuss the best way to get football on the field this fall.
“I’m focused on taking care of my kids and doing my job,” Buchanan told the Herald-Leader on Monday morning, declining to comment further about his district’s decision.
Last week, sports teams in Estill and Jackson counties were also shuttered over their red status on the Kentucky Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Current Incidence Rate map, which tracks a seven-day rolling average of cases compared to each county’s population. A rate of 25 cases per 100,000 people crosses into the “Critical” or “Red” status. Mercer County’s level jumped to 26.1 on Saturday’s map and remained red Sunday. Other teams, including Franklin County and Central Hardin football, were suspended last week due to COVID-19 cases or contacts on the teams themselves.
The KDPH map was unveiled this month to help school districts decide how to move forward with in-person schooling. Both the KDPH and the KHSAA recommend schools in “red” counties suspend athletics the week after elevating to that status. But those recommendations are not binding and some schools have continued to play despite them.
“We provided guidance and recommendations for our member schools to operate under, and it is up to them to determine the best course of action, just as they did in determining when to return to in-person instruction,” Tackett told the Herald-Leader via email Friday when asked about those decisions. “It is up to each district to examine the available data and make decisions in its best interest for the safety of its student-athletes.”
In all, 10 counties were red after Sunday’s map update, down from 13 the day before as the averages jumped back and forth over the 25-point threshold over the weekend. Presumably, crossing back into the “orange” level would mean Mercer County and others who decided to shutter over their status, could return to sports.
Golf, which was the first sport that was approved by the KHSAA to return to play, remains unaffected in Mercer County. Their boys’ and girls’ golf teams are set to play in their respective regional tournaments beginning Monday morning.
Fayette County is among the districts whose teams played through “red” statuses last week. However, some other districts are refusing to play “red” status teams. Scott County canceled its athletic events against Fayette teams, including a district football game last Friday between Scott County and Frederick Douglass. Both teams were able to hastily schedule other opponents.
Fayette crossed into a red status from Tuesday through Thursday last week, an elevation that has been blamed on spread on the University of Kentucky campus, but Fayette schools officials have not commented on the issue in regard to their sports teams. The Fayette school board was set to take up the discussion of returning to in-person learning and possibly the status of its sports teams in light of the constantly changing COVID-19 map at Monday night’s meeting.
In Warren County, where teams continued to play through red statuses when the map was first introduced, district athletic director Eric Wilson said the district’s commitment to providing opportunities for its students was the deciding factor.
“The KHSAA left the final decisions (local control) to districts. We had some districts cancel games but other districts felt the same way that we did which was providing as many opportunities to our students as we could during the COVID pandemic,” Wilson said via email. “Most districts agreed to play games as scheduled. We also assured opponents that we follow CDC, KHSAA, and local health department guidelines on the “return to play” protocol for athletic events. Districts that valued student-athlete opportunities were in agreement to play scheduled games as safe as possible.”
It is unclear how that “local control” will play out when teams begin facing each other in the KHSAA’s postseason playoffs, which begin in mid-October in some sports.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 11:38 AM.
