A high school football player in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has tested positive for COVID-19 after playing in a football game Saturday night between Lathrop and West Valley.
In an announcement sent Monday evening, the school district said it learned Monday afternoon that the student-athlete tested positive. All players, coaches and individuals involved the football programs at both schools have been notified and asked to quarantine, according to the district.
“We are appreciative of the athlete’s family for notifying school officials so the district could act quickly to inform others who were involved,” the district stated in the release.
The district did not say how many people could have been exposed. However, Luke Balash head football coach at Lathrop, said his team alone has about 57 students and that everyone, including coaches, is starting a 14-day quarantine. There are more than 30 players on the other team, he said.
The district said public health officials will conduct contact tracing to track possible exposures. It also said that the Department of Health and Human Services defines a close contact for COVID-19 as someone who has interacted with a case-positive person while within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes.
Other football teams at schools in the district will continue to practice and play games as scheduled, the district said.
The Fairbanks school district started the year last Thursday with all its classes online-only, in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Department of Health and Social Services data show that that the rate of new cases in the borough has been increasing over the last two weeks.
High school football programs around Alaska began the season Friday with an array of COVID-19 mitigation precautions in place and under a haze of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
While the Alaska School Activities Association has released a set of protocols for football and other sports activities to follow to help lower the risks of the virus spreading during practices and events, some coronavirus exposures are inevitable. In Anchorage, a youth baseball coach tested positive for COVID-19 in July.
[ Related: Alaska’s possibly brief and definitely bizarre high school football season begins Friday ]
All 50 states and the District of Columbia intend to play high school football, though some have moved their seasons to the spring, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
For Balash and his team, Saturday’s game was the first of the season. It could be the last.
“I even told the boys before the game, ‘Hey this might be the only one. You never know, so let’s enjoy it, make the most of it, and have no regrets,‘” Balash said.
Balash said he and the team are “hoping and praying and believing we’re going to get more football later.”
This situation is exactly the reason for the mitigation strategies the district and the activities association have implemented, he said.
“Right now none of us are suspected to have it — we’re all suspected to have been exposed,” Balash said. Everyone in quarantine is monitoring themselves for symptoms, he said.
Balash said that because the football athletes aren’t going to classes in school buildings, that also helps mitigate any exposure outside of the football teams.
At the game Saturday, everyone watching wore face masks and players on the sidelines were wearing masks and social distancing and the ball was disinfected between possessions, he said.
“There was bright hot sun, a little bit of a breeze — that helps too,” Balash said. “So there was a lot of stuff in our favor so we’re trusting and believing in that following all those guidelines, and mother nature being what she is, that we’re all going to be OK.”
The exposure he does worry about among high school football players happens when they spend time together before and after games and practices, he said. They might not following social distancing and mask wearing guidelines away from the watchful eyes of coaches and parents, he said.
“These are healthy, athletic kids without a lot of co-morbidities,” Balash said. Still, he’s reminding his team members to take good care of themselves while in quarantine, he said.
They will not be able to practice during the two week quarantine, but Balash said he is hopeful they will get to play football again this season.
“But it’s outside of our control. All we can really control is us in our in our hearts and our minds and in trying to have great attitudes about this whole process and do what we’re asked to do,” he said.