EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — Just three days after the start of the high school football season in Missouri, the Excelsior Springs football team is quarantining after a positive test for COVID-19 of one of their opponents.
The team played at Savannah, Missouri, on Friday night, and by Monday, the football field at Excelsior Springs was empty. No practice for the Varsity team, and freshmen and JV games against Savannah were called off.
“Everybody just started screen-shotting it and putting it on their stories for Snapchat: The football team is quarantined,” Excelsior Springs senior soccer player Blake Ryan said of the quick spread of the news Monday.
On Monday, Savannah R-III, which is north of St. Joseph, sent students home early. The school district posted on its website it was not because of an outbreak.
“In fact, SHS only has two new positive cases and six positive COVID-19 cases in total,” according to the statement
Excelsior Springs said in a Facebook post one of the positive tests from Savannah was someone on the field for Friday night’s opening game.
Excelsior Springs asked anyone who was on the football field Friday night to watch for COVID-19 symptoms and speak with their health care provider if they experience anything of concern.
It’s something fellow students hate to see happen to their classmates, but they said is probably best with school set to open in the hybrid model next week.
“It will just spread and then school will end up going fully online, and I’m not really wanting that,” senior James Love said.
Savannah R-III said it will reopen school Tuesday. Excelsior Springs was scheduled to play football at Warrensburg on Friday night. No official announcement has been made about the game so far.
