Exeter suspends workouts in 2 sports
Football and cross country are halted after an athlete in each sport tests positive for the coronavirus
Exeter’s football season could be in jeopardy after workouts were suspended Tuesday for the second time in the past month because a player tested positive for COVID-19.
Also, two days later, cross country workouts were suspended at the school when a runner tested positive.
Exeter has reported three positive tests since the PIAA gave the okay for preseason workouts to resume on July 1.
“Everybody’s football season could be in danger,” said Exeter superintendent Dr. Kimberly Minor. “I don’t think that’s unique to Exeter. It’s hard to not question whether or not fall sports seasons are possible within schools right now.”
The school district sent a letter to the parents of football players on Tuesday and to the parents of senior high and junior high cross country athletes on Thursday informing them of the situation.
Workouts for football will not begin again until Aug. 31, which coincides with the start of the PIAA-mandated heat acclimatization period.
Cross country will resume on Aug. 24, the official BCIAA start date for practice for noncontact sports.
Football workouts also were suspended at Exeter for two weeks in July when the school district announced that a player had tested positive.
Minor said the district will continue to monitor information from health officials, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and the PIAA as it determines whether to continue pursuit of a fall sports season.
“I would say it gets more difficult with each positive case to preserve the seasons,” she said.
Minor said that if another member of the football team tests positive prior to Aug. 31 the situation will be reevaluated.
“We’re hoping for a 31st restart (for football), but that’s not a guarantee,” she said. “Let’s say we get more positive tests after this week, that might be enough to say: ‘We don’t feel that we can do it.’ We’re not there yet, but we’ll see what happens between now and the 31st.”
The letter to football parents indicated that players may have been exposed to coronavirus at practice between July 30 and Aug. 10. The letter to cross country parents indicated exposure could have happened at practice on Aug. 6. High school and junior high runners train together one day per week.
The district encouraged football players and staff to selfquarantine until Aug. 25 and for cross country runners and staff to self-quarantine until Aug. 24.
“Out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to preserve the football season, we are suspending workouts,” the football letter said.
The cross country letter contained similar verbiage.
Minor said she does not believe the multiple positive cases indicate a flaw in the district’s health and safety protocols, or that student-athletes are ignoring guidelines.
“I think our health and safety protocols are correct, because in each case we haven’t had transmission to other players on the team,” Minor said. “If our protocols were incorrect we would’ve seen other positives. Time will tell, but on the original football (case) no one else became positive.
“I’m not an epidemiologist, but my gut is that these are not originating on our teams, and they’re not spreading through our teams.
“I don’t want to be critical of the students or the coaches, because anybody can get COVID. I would like to think that our players recognize the importance of following precautions, because they don’t want to get sick and they want to have their seasons.
“Unfortunately, it’s the insidious nature of this disease, that you can pick it up anywhere.”
Muhlenberg, Reading High, Schuylkill Valley and Wyomissing each suspended workouts for various sports in July when student-athletes either reported testing positive, reported coming in contact with someone who had tested positive, or reported having secondary exposure to an individual who was in close contact with someone who had tested positive.
Reading High has since suspended fall sports.