COVID-19 cited for a number of high school game cancellations as football kicks off

Hopes that fall high school sports seasons would proceed unmarred by COVID-19 cancellations have not been realized as football games are set to kick off Friday.

So far, according to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s online scoreboard, there have been 12 football games officially wiped off the schedule as a “COVID Cancellation” as teams report COVID-19 cases or contacts within their programs.

Among them was Paul Laurence Dunbar’s game against West Jessamine, scheduled to be part of the “Visit West Jessamine Bowl” doubleheader in Nicholasville on Friday night.

Thursday morning, Dunbar, a Class 6A football school, announced it had found a replacement opponent and will host Class 2A Breathitt County at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Breathitt County’s original Week 1 opponent, Magoffin County, had to back out for COVID-19 reasons. So, too, did Crittenden County, Warren Central, Fort Campbell, Jackson County, Greenup County, Lewis County, Pleasure Ridge Park and Doss.

Like Dunbar, a number of those teams’ opponents have been able to find replacement games this week.

Other sports have sustained cancellations, as well, with boys’ soccer losing eight games in the first week, girls’ soccer 14 and volleyball 15.

Unlike last year during the pandemic, this season, schools are not allowed to back out of any game for any reason without suffering a forfeit. Revised KHSAA rules stipulate that if a team must go into COVID quarantine and miss a scheduled game, it will have to forfeit that game and the game will go down as a “forfeit win” for their opponent.

However, If the teams are able to reschedule their game or if they are able to find a new opponent to make up for the lost game, the forfeit will be removed from their records, according to the KHSAA.

The KHSAA estimated that about 25 percent of all its games across all its sports were canceled last year due to COVID-19. Missed games included scheduled postseason tournament appearances for some schools.

That percentage included a number of games that were canceled over concerns about an opponent’s “red zone” status and the public health measures many school districts took to avoid playing games against teams in “red” counties. Those concerns do not appear to be a factor in this year’s cancellations. As of Wednesday all but six of Kentucky’s 120 counties were in the red zone.

The COVID-19 incidence rate reported by the state Department of Public Health significantly diminished over the spring and early summer when vaccines became widely available, but cases have skyrocketed in the last few weeks as the virus spread through the state again, mostly afflicting the unvaccinated.

The KHSAA has joined the vaccination effort with a social media campaign urging people to get vaccinated.

The KHSAA has also amended its COVID-19 protocols to allow vaccinated players to return to action more quickly.

For unvaccinated athletes, the COVID-19 protocols put in place last fall remain. If an athlete is exposed to someone with the virus, that athlete must be quarantined for at least 10 days and show no symptoms at the end of that period to be cleared to play.

But if a COVID-19 exposed athlete is fully vaccinated and shows no symptoms, that athlete can continue to participate with the team without delay.

All athletes, coaches and staff who contract COVID-19 still face the KHSAA’s original quarantine and protocol for returning to play, typically having to sit out at least three weeks.

Jared Peck

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-488-2883

Jared Peck, the Herald-Leader’s Digital Sports Writer, covers high school athletics and has been with the company as a writer and editor for more than 20 years. Support my work with a digital subscription