No H.S. football

CIAC says the high school football season will remain canceled.

The Meriden Raiders youth football team had its season suspended for the fall on Wednesday after two positive COVID-19testresultsonthe team resulted in 62 people needing to quarantine, the city said.

“InconsultationwiththeMeriden Director of Health and Human Services, and by virtue of the Declaration of Emergency for the City of Meriden, dated March 18, 2020, I am suspending the Meriden Raiders Football season for the fall of 2020 in order to further the public health and safety of the Citizens of Meriden,” city manager Timothy Coonsaid in a memo.

The Raiders field six different teams, rangingfroman8-and-under team to a 13-and-under team.

Both positive cases are players, though their ages are unclear. The first case forced 27 individuals to quarantine, the second forced 35 to quarantine. Many of the individuals affectedareschoolchildren, who will beforcedtomiss, orhavealready missed, 14 days of school. Meriden has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases, from 44 cases in all of August to 54 cases through the first half of September.

“This decision is not made due to any fault on the part of the Raiders,” a statement from the city read. “Unfortunately, the sport is inherently risky in a COVID-19 environment.”

According to the Raiders in a Facebook post, the first player who tested positive contracted the virus fromasiblingandlastpracticedAug. 24. Asaprecaution, theentireleague shut downfor two weeks.

Following the two-week pause, the team recommended all its players get tested, which resulted in a second player, whowasasymptomatic, testing positive.

“We maintain contact with the DPH as well as the local Parks and Rec. department to ensure we are taking thenecessarystepsforhealth and safety overall,” the Facebook post read.

ThedecisiontosuspendtheRaiders’ season comes a day after the news of a Maloney High-Meriden football player testing positive for COVID-19.

The player was one of over 1,000 in attendance at a rally at the state Capitol last Wednesday urging the ConnecticutInterscholasticAthletic Conference, thestateDepartmentof PublicHealthandGov. NedLamont to consider allowing a high school football season.

According to city officials, the high school players did not exhibit any COVID-19 symptoms when he attended the rally.