COVID cases lead to Cedartown canceling season opener

Precautions against the spread of COVID-19 have had plenty of impact on classrooms and hallway interactions in Polk County schools since students returned on Aug. 3. Now it is forcing Cedartown High School’s football team to take a drastic step.

Polk School District officials said last week that three Cedartown High School football players had tested positive for the new coronavirus, leading to a domino effect that has forced the Bulldogs to cancel their season opening game at Carrollton.

The players will have to go through a quarantine and acclimation period set forth by the Georgia High School Association, according to Assistant Superintendent Greg Teems. That period will include Sept. 4, the date of the Cedartown-Carrollton game, so the game was canceled.

In the meantime, Cedartown’s football team has halted practice and coaches were advised to do a deep cleaning of the locker room and other shared areas by the players.

Teems said he did not know if the two schools could rescheduled the game for later in the season, but that they were closely monitoring any decisions that come from the GHSA that could affect fall sports. Cedartown’s first game is now against cross-county rival Rockmart on Sept. 11 at Rockmart.

The GHSA Board of Trustees had voted on July 20 to push the start date for the football regular season back from Aug. 21 to Sept. 4. Competition cheerleading will tentatively begin on Nov. 21 with the state finals on Feb. 26-27, 2021.

Earlier this month, GHSA Executive Director Robin Hines announced the organization had decided to cancel all preseason football scrimmages that would have been played on Friday or Aug. 28.

Rockmart was still scheduled to open the 2020 season on Sept. 4 at Barron Stadium in Rome against Rome High as of press time.

The game, as well as the Cedartown-Carrollton matchup, had been originally slated as part of the annual Corky Kell Classic series of contests at Barron Stadium. However, Rome City Schools, which manages Barron Stadium, informed the series organizers they felt they would not be able to follow all health and safety guidelines by hosting backto-back games.