Two players on the Bellows Free Academy St. Albans football team tested positive for Covid-19 this week, leading officials to cancel the team’s game against Rutland High School that was scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.
After interviews with all team members, about a dozen Bellows Free Academy players were also sent home, said Dan Marlow, the school’s athletic director.
That includes four players who were unvaccinated, he said, and others who have received the shot but showed symptoms of the virus.
The two players who tested positive had both been vaccinated.
Marlow said all of the students who were sent home and were not vaccinated, or who were but showed symptoms, need to get an additional negative test this weekend before they can return to play.
He said school officials canceled Friday’s game out of an abundance of caution and to protect the Rutland High players. The game will not count as a forfeit and instead will be treated as if it was never on the schedule.
“We just decided at that time there were too many uncertainties — and not enough certainties — where we felt we could safely [play] and not affect somebody else as well,” he said.
Marlow said the team normally has 32 players but could have fewer than 20 available to play next week. That may not be enough, he said, especially if players get injured.
“We should have more insight as to where we’re at on Monday in terms of numbers,” he said. “The wish, certainly, is that we continue to be able to play, but a lot of those things are outside of our control at this point.”
White also said he informed officials at Champlain Valley Union High School — which BFA played Oct. 1 — about the two positive cases.
Champlain Valley Union officials “felt pretty comfortable,” he said, since their entire football team has been vaccinated.
