Another Treasure Valley high school suspends workouts after positive COVID-19 test
A second Treasure Valley school district has temporarily closed its summer high school sports programs as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the area.
Caldwell closed all of its sports facilities Monday after one athlete tested positive, Caldwell Athletic Director Jonathan Hallock confirmed to the Idaho Statesman. It plans to restart its summer workouts and practices Monday if it can get approval from Southwest District Health.
Hallock said Caldwell received news of the positive test Sunday and immediately cleaned its facilities. It will also take a week off to allow Southwest District Health time to trace anyone who may have come in contact with the positive individual.
Hallock added the athlete did not show any symptoms and had only entered Caldwell’s facilities two or three times this summer. The school kept sign-in sheets so it knew who was on campus the same time as that athlete.
“We don’t have anybody else confirmed, and we don’t have any probables,” Hallock said.
Caldwell follows the Boise School District, which closed summer workouts until August for its four high schools. Boise Schools had four confirmed cases and four probable cases as of Friday. It did not reveal which school those cases came from.
Pocatello’s Highland High also reported an adult in its football program tested positive last week and possibly exposed students June 18, 19 and 22, forcing it to temporarily suspend activities.
And a single Coeur d’Alene football/basketball player tested positive last week, leading that district to cancel all school-sponsored sports until July 6.
The cases throw into doubt Idaho’s ability to host a high school sports season this fall. The 5A and 4A Southern Idaho Conferences agreed to return-to-play procedures in May that limited practices to small groups and tried to maximize social distancing.
But they failed to make it to the stage that allowed games between schools. The leagues planned to start games June 27 if Idaho moved out of Stage 4 of its reopening plan. Gov. Brad Little kept the state in Stage 4 last week, and the state set a record for new confirmed cases with 472 Monday.
Hallock said two weeks ago he was confident Idaho high school sports would start on time. Now, he’s not so sure.
“I’m fairly confident we’ll start out normal,” he said. “I don’t know if that means we’ll have the normal start date. But I think with sports and school, we’ll start normal and then we’ll adjust as we need to from there.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 4:11 PM.
