Two Kansas high schools halt football games after one player tests positive for COVID

Two high schools in southeast Kansas have halted football activities after one player tested positive following a game last week.

The football teams of Fort Scott and Independence high schools are in quarantine after a Fort Scott player contracted COVID-19. The teams played each other last Friday and had been scheduled to play again this Friday.

Fort Scott officials said their upcoming games were canceled. Independence officials said theirs were postponed.

Ted Hessong, superintendent of Fort Scott USD 234, issued a statement on Wednesday announcing that the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department had identified three positive coronavirus cases in the district.

One is a high school student, another is a middle school student and the other is a high school employee. Those three people are in isolation.

The three cases have resulted in the quarantines of 89 high school students, 19 middle school students, two elementary school students, two high school employees and one elementary school employee.

Every player on the Fort Scott football team is in quarantine — but not the managers or coaches — after local health officials called the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“It was determined that our whole HS football team needed to go into quarantine because football is considered a high risk activity and KDHE has decided if there is student/athlete who participates in a high risk activity and is positive for COVID-19 then the whole team and the team they competed against will need to be quarantined,” Hessong said.

That means the Independence team also has to quarantine.

Rusty Arnold, superintendent of Independence USD 446, said in a statement that the Montgomery County Health Department notified them on Wednesday of the case on the Fort Scott football team.

“Individuals identified as close contacts will not be allowed to return to school for at least 14 days; however, they will have access to Remote Learning,” he said.

Independence high school administrators announced Thursday that the football team’s quarantine runs through Sept. 25, which is two weeks after the game took place.

That means this week’s varsity game against Fort Scott is postponed, as is next week’s game against Coffeyville. Junior varsity games during that time are also postponed, and band and dance will not perform.

Football activities may resume Sept. 26. The first game back would be against Chanute on Oct. 2, which is scheduled to be homecoming and senior night. Band and dance will perform at halftime.

Fort Scott administrators said their upcoming varsity and junior varsity games against Independence and Pittsburg have been canceled. The next game on the schedule is Oct. 2 against Labette County.