Indian Valley High School has canceled its next two football games against Dover and Newcomerstown High School after multiple sick players showed symptoms of COVID-19, according to Indian Valley athletic director Nick Swaldo.
“We learned today that we have several sick football players among our high school football team, some have COVID-19 symptoms,” said Swaldo in a press release on Wednesday. “There have been no reported cases of a positive COVID-19 test at this time. Once we have confirmation of any positive case, contact tracing will be conducted and close-contacts notified.”
Swaldo added that the football team “will be observing a shut-down period starting today (Sept. 1, 2021) through Sept. 12. The shut-down period includes all football players (freshman, junior varsity and varsity), with the tentative date for Indian Valley to return to practice coming on Sept. 13.
Tim Stried, OHSAA director of media relations, said Wednesday afternoon that cancelled games are considered to be no contest, as if the game was never scheduled.
Indian Valley is now the second Inter-Valley Conference team in the last week to be affected by the coronavirus, as East Canton was forced to cancel their Sept. 3 game against Southern Local due to a “COVID issue.”
According to the Tuscarawas County Health Department, Indian Valley had 11 new student COVID-19 cases for the reporting period of Aug. 23-29.
Before the cancelation, Indian Valley (2-0) was set to face off with the Crimson Tornadoes (2-0) for the 13th time in school history, and the first time since 2007, when both schools were members of the East Central Ohio League.