Midlands football jamboree canceled after player tests positive for COVID-19
Camden High School has canceled its jamboree after a Bulldog player has tested positive for COVID-19.
The Bulldog Bash was to be held Friday at Zempf Stadium and include a series of scrimmages featuring Lamar, Central, Blythewood, AC Flora, West Florence, River Bluff and North Augusta. This week is the final tune-up before regular season games begin next week.
“While we were looking forward to hosting this football jamboree, the safety of our students is our top priority,“ Camden football coach Brian Rimpf said in a statement. “We appreciate the cooperation of our fans and other teams. We believe canceling the jamboree is the best way for our players to remain healthy and have the opportunity to play in the future.”
Rimpf said the player tested positive on Monday. Camden played in a scrimmage at River Bluff on Saturday. Rimpf said he notified all the coaches and teams they came in contact during the four-team event between River Bluff, South Florence and North Augusta.
Camden High School is scheduled to play its season opener against Lakewood on Sept. 25 when public high schools begin their seasons across South Carolina.
Rimpf said the team planned to practiced Tuesday and the rest of the week and hopes to still open the season next week but knows that could change. The player and others who were in direct contact are in quarantine, he said.
“The silver lining is this happened now and not in Week 6,” Rimpf said. “It is going to be interesting to see how things play out during the season. We’ve got to plan for every scenario.”
Camden is the fourth S.C. school to cancel a football scrimmage because of a player testing positive in the last two days.
On Tuesday afternoon, WSPA reported that Union County football team put things on hold after a player tested positive for COVID-19. The Yellow Jackets won play in their scrimmage this week and will postpone its opener against Clinton on Sept. 25.
Calhoun Falls also won’t play Dixie in the Abbeville Jamboree, according to the Greenwood Index. The paper reported Calhoun won’t play because of a player coming in close contact with an individual at the charter school who tested positive for COVID-19. The school still hopes to play its opener next week.
Broome won’t scrimmage this week and will have to reschedule its season opener against Emerald.
Clinton will now play Emerald to begin the season Sept. 24 because both teams’ opponents were affected by COVID-19.
Last month, the S.C. High School League’s executive committee passed a proposal to move the start of football practice to Sept. 8. The first football games will be Sept. 25 and teams will play a seven-game regular season.
The amount of coronavirus cases around the state are on the decline in recent days.
Earlier this month, S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton felt a lot better about high school sports being played this fall in South Carolina. The S.C. Independent schools are in their fourth week of playing fall sports already.
“Very encouraged,” Singleton said. “Majority of the schools said things are going well and they’re enforcing the guidelines we established earlier. So I am encouraged we will get all of our fall sports in and at least get them started. ... It appears right now we are in a good position.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 10:44 AM.
