Health Department halts Shelby athletics

Daily Globe Sports Editor

All athletic activities in the Shelby School District were suspended immediately after Richland County went into ‘purple’ status Thursday on the state’s COVID-19 chart.

In a release sent out by athletic director Pat Lewis, the Shelby Health Department determined that all athletic activities, including both in-season and out-of-season, must be halted.

“The pause in activities will continue until further notice,” said Lewis. “Shelby City Schools will continue to work closely with our local health authorities to determine at what date activities may resume. A return to activity will be communicated to our athletes and their families as soon as such a decision is made.”

The immediate postponements affected the Lady Whippets girls basketball team who was scheduled to kick off Mid Ohio Athletic Conference play Thursday night at Galion as well as the boys and girls bowling teams who were scheduled to host Marion Harding at Dynasty Lanes in Willard.

Because of the urgency of the early afternoon decision, no sports teams in the district were permitted to practice.

Varsity coaches in the district were left scrambling at the last minute on how to keep athletes in shape.

“We are having a girls basketball zoom meeting tonight (Thursday night) to talk about what we can do and how to stay in shape,” said SHS girls basketball coach Natalie Lantz.

Shelby wrestling coach Ted Tonn said “We are doing virtual workouts by zoom and/or facebook live where I can monitor them daily working out.”

“The boys basketball team will have a zoom meeting and I’ll also be posting daily workouts on our

Twitter page to do at home,” said Whippets coach Nathon Loney.

Around Richland County, a number of schools were also pausing athletics.

Clear Fork, Mansfield Senior, Madison and Lexington were putting athletics on hold. Ontario was expected to make a decision regarding its athletic programs Friday morning. Mansfield Christian was planning to continuing athletic contests.

There was no report on what Plymouth, Crestview, Lucas and Mansfield St. Peter’s planned to do with the county currently having purple status.