Lodi High postpones football opener due to COVID-19

Team down to about 12 players due to cases, possible exposures

With low numbers on Lodi High’s practice field due to COVID-19 cases and quarantine, Lodi and Grant high schools announced on Tuesday that their football opener, scheduled for Friday in Sacramento, has been postponed to Sept. 17.

“After careful consideration based on the number of Lodi High varsity football players on district and CDPH required quarantine or self-assessed absence due to COVID-19 symptoms, it was decided by the athletic department that a postponement of Friday’s football game versus the Grant Pacers is in the best interest of the athletes at each school and each school’s football season,” read a release signed by Lodi principal Adam Auerbach and football coach George Duenas, along with Grant High Athletic Director and football coach Carl Reed.

Lodi High Athletic Director Robert Winterhalter said the school’s second game, scheduled for Aug. 27 against McNair at the Grape Bowl, should be able to go ahead. Duenas said he should have most of his missing players back from quarantine on Monday, though between players out for COVID-19 symptoms, self-assessed absences and mandatory quarantine, he had 12 varsity players at practice on Tuesday.

“Now as it goes through, kids are getting negative tests, we should have most of them back on Monday,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “I’m pretty sure today’s practice will be canceled with the air. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

Both Duenas and Winterhalter said it was just luck that the two schools had the same bye week in September that they could slot the game into.

“Super lucky. I saw it coming because I looked at their schedule,” Duenas said. “I called Coach Reed and he was really proactive and worked with us. Honestly, we’re lucky they were willing to give up their bye week.”

Winterhalter said had the bye weeks not lined up, then Grant would have looked for something for the opener and Lodi would have looked for an opponent for the Sept. 17 opening.

“The goal is still to have 10 games,” Winterhalter said. “To cancel a football game is not a decision you make lightly, but when you look at the situation, everyone understands.”

According to Lodi Unified’s exposure notice page on its website, the district has had 139 total exposures — 11 of them at Lodi High — since school reopened.

For Duenas, it was a hard pill

ditions, including COVID-19, the young and the elderly are very susceptible to adverse health effects from particulate matter pollution, and anyone experiencing poor air quality should move to a filtered, air-conditioned environment with the windows closed, the district said.

The cloth and paper masks being used as protection from COVID-19 and may not be enough to prevent smoke inhalation, the district said.

The Dixie Fire in Butte County has been active 35 days and is only 33% contained, according to CalFire. The Antelope

Fire in Siskiyou County began on Aug. 1 and is only 27% contained, while the Lava Fire, located in the same county that began on July 24, is 85% contained.

The Tiltill Fire in Tuolumne County, which began on July 31, is 90% contained. There was no containment information for the Caldor Fire, which began last Saturday in El Dorado County.

The Monument Fire and River Complex Fire and in Trinity County are both 10% contained, while the McFarland Fire, which encompasses Trinity, Shasta and Tehama counties, is 51% contained.

The Walkers Fire began Sunday in Tulare County, but there was no containment information from CalFire.