Lexington High football postpones season opener due to COVID-19 exposure
The Lexington High football team won’t play its season opener this Friday. It’s the second week in a row the Wildcats have had their first game postponed or canceled.
On Wednesday, Lexington 1 School District announced the home game against Beaufort has been canceled “after a COVID-19 positive exposure.” The decision did not impact Lexington High’s junior varsity or B teams.
The announcement comes less than a week after the Wildcats’ first scheduled opponent, River Bluff, had three people associated with the team test positive for the coronavirus.
Any COVID-19 exposure results in the quarantining of direct exposure (close contact for more than 15 minutes within less than six feet) to an individual, or individuals, who tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Lexington One.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control recommends a 14-day quarantine period from the time of the last exposure to the person with COVID-19.
South Carolina’s K-12 schools have seen 90 new coronavirus cases since data were last reported Friday, raising the total number of school cases to 622 since classes resumed, according to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control data. DHEC reports new numbers every Tuesday and Friday.
Of those, there were five or less from Lexington High students according to DHEC.
Lexington won’t be able to play for two weeks, according to the school district. Friday’s game against Beaufort won’t be made up. The matchup with White Knoll for Oct. 2 will be rescheduled for Oct. 30. Lexington was supposed to play a non-region game against Gilbert on Oct. 30 but now Gilbert will have to find an opponent.
Lexington will return to practice field Oct. 6 and host Ridge View on Oct. 9. The Wildcats also will host senior night that night.
The cancellations and postponements will leave Lexington with just five games, four of them region contests.
Beaufort coach Bryce Lybrand said the Eagles are likely not going to play this week either because it would be hard finding an opponent this late. Beaufort’s orginally-scheduled opener against Hilton Head Island was postponed because of COVID-19 and will be made up Oct. 30.
S.C. high school teams are playing a shortened seven-game season during the coronavirus pandemic, and teams are playing region contests first. Those games help determine playoff seeding. The season is starting a little more than a month later than originally planned.
There are 34 states playing a fall football season — 17 of those are modified or shorter seasons.
The Lexington-Beaufort game is the latest game across the state to be postponed or canceled. Others include Abbeville-Crescent, West Oak-Liberty, Camden-Lakewood, Hilton Head-Beaufort, Swansea-Strom Thurmond, Union County-Clinton and Broome-Emerald.
Individuals who purchased general admission tickets to the Sept. 25 game with Beaufort High can get a refund by bringing their purchased tickets to the LHS Athletic Ticket Office on Sept. 30, and Oct. 1, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Oct. 2, from 8 a.m. to noon.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
