High schools in California and Ohio have been forced to make the rare decision to cancel football games due to disease outbreaks within their student-athlete ranks.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Palisades High athletic director Rocky Montz announced Thursday afternoon that the Dolphins had forfeited Friday's non-conference football game at San Pedro due to a COVID outbreak among players.
“We were really looking forward to the game but unfortunately, due to illness across the team and for the safety of not only our players but San Pedro’s, as well, we won’t be able to play the game tomorrow,” Montz said.
Palisades head coach Dylen Smith confirmed that “about 15 players or so” had fallen ill.
City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos said the game counts as a forfeit because not enough players could practice because of the COVID outbreak.
Cuyahoga Falls High School announced the cancellation of its Friday game in a social media post Sept. 17, citing "an illness in our program."
Black Tigers coach Kevin Pask told the Akron Beacon Journal on Sept. 18 the football team is dealing with hand, foot and mouth disease, which USA TODAY reported is a disease "typically associated with children under the age of 5."
"I feel for the kids, especially finding out this late in the week and having a pretty good week of practice and trying to bounce back after a tough one last week," Pask said, per the Beacon Journal. "We were definitely ready to get back out on the field, but unfortunately that is not able to happen. So we are trying to regroup and get ourselves healthy and get back after it, hopefully next week."
According to Ohio High School Athletic Association regulations, "if a game is not played on the scheduled date and the schools are unable to agree to a mutually convenient makeup date, the Executive Director's office will determine whether the date is treated as a 'no-contest' or forfeiture, taking into consideration the reason for cancelling the scheduled contest and the rationale used by the schools in their efforts to re-schedule the contest."
"As far as I know, based upon the rules, this will go in as a loss for us and a win for them," Pask said. "Unfortunate incident, but we will move forward."
