Douglass, Dunbar football games canceled because of Fayette County coronavirus level
Fayette County’s elevation to a “red level” on Kentucky’s COVID-19 incidence rate map this week has prompted Scott County’s two high schools to pull out of athletic events in Lexington, including Friday night’s football games that would have had Frederick Douglass traveling to Scott County and Great Crossing coming to Paul Laurence Dunbar.
“We evaluate the map the day before (a game) and if it’s a red county in a high-contact sport, we’re not participating home or away,” Scott County’s district athletic director Daniel T. Wells said. Scott County’s teams began canceling Fayette teams in other sports on Wednesday. “The (Kentucky High School Athletic Association) put out a recommendation to not play games in counties that are red. We follow recommendations.”
But there has been no action by the Fayette County schools themselves to delay or postpone any athletic events. Several were played Thursday night and continue to be scheduled. Douglass’s football team was in active discussions trying to line up another opponent and got one. The Broncos will travel to Ballard for an 11 a.m. Saturday kickoff in Louisville.
The Fayette County School Board is set to discuss the county’s COVID-19 status in a special meeting Friday morning, but there are no action items on that agenda, schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said.
The rapid rise of Fayette County’s incidence level this week has been blamed on the virus’ spread among University of Kentucky students. The school board will be discussing whether that “red level” status will change its plan to resume in-person learning in early October. Fayette has 26.3 cases per 100,000 people, according to the state’s dashboard. The red threshold is 25.0.
Guidance regarding high school sports in “red level” status counties from both the Kentucky High School Athletic Association and the Kentucky Department for Public Health state that sports and extracurricular activities should be suspended the week after the county hits the red level. But that guidance from Public Health wasn’t set to go into effect until Sept. 28 and the guidance from the KHSAA is only a recommendation, not a requirement.
Several schools from red-level counties, in fact, are scheduled to play or have been playing, although Estill County and Knott County Central this week temporarily shut down their programs over it.
Barren County, Union County, Hopkinsville and others are scheduled to play football games Friday night.
Frederick Douglass Athletic Director Jeremy Delaney said he understood Scott County’s decision.
“Of course, it’s a district game for us, so that game will be rescheduled at some point in time. We don’t have that done,” Delaney said. “I think this is just 2020 COVID athletics to be honest with you. This is just the way it’s going to go.”
Douglass confirmed its Saturday morning matchup with Ballard at about 8 p.m. on Thursday. Earlier, Scott County’s Cardinals found their replacement and will host Clark County on Friday. It was Clark’s cancellation on Ballard over the social unrest in Louisville that freed up the Bruins.
Meanwhile, Great Crossing will host Shelby County on Saturday. Shelby County had its original game against Franklin County canceled due to COVID and a quick reschedule against Western Hills was also scrapped Thursday afternoon.
As of this writing, Lafayette’s game at Bryan Station was still on, as is Lexington Catholic’s game at Tates Creek and Pikeville’s hastily scheduled game against Henry Clay. Henry Clay was set to host Central Hardin on Friday, but an actual COVID case on the Bruins team prompted that game to be canceled.
Pikeville Coach Chris McNamee said if Henry Clay feels comfortable hosting a football game, his team is comfortable playing in it.
“Yes, we’re going to come,” McNamee said. “We talked to Henry Clay a couple of times today … I think they would cancel before most districts would cancel (if there were concerns).”
Since fall sports began Sept. 7 across the state, no Fayette County high school team has been shut down due to a coronavirus infection or contact and the district has maintained several protocols for players and fans to attend games, including limiting fans and identifying every spectator on a supplied list.
