State champion A.C. Flora football team placed in quarantine after COVID positive
Just two days after winning the first state football title in school history, A.C. Flora High School’s football team is in quarantine after a coach tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.
The Richland 1 school district confirmed Monday afternoon that players and coaching staff — about 80 people in total — are quarantined after the positive result to a COVID-19 test on Sunday, the day after the Falcons played the 4A championship game at Charlie W. Johnson Stadium in Columbia.
A.C. Flora won the school’s first state championship on Saturday with a 42-7 win over North Myrtle Beach. It was the first football title for a Richland 1 school since 1970.
In celebration, some players climbed into a crowded student section, while other students entered the field to celebrate alongside the team at the conclusion of the game.
It was Flora’s first appearance in a football state title game and comes four years after the team finished 0-10 in 2017. Since then, the Falcons are 28-5, including 19-2 under coach Dustin Curtis, who was an assistant at Flora for seven years before returning in 2019 to lead the program.
A.C. Flora athletic director Edward Moore notified the players and coaches Sunday night that a member of the football program tested positive earlier in the day after being previously showing no symptoms.
“We are requiring all members of the football program to quarantine until we have the opportunity to accurately contact trace,” Moore said in the email that was posted on the football team’s Twitter page Monday. “Once the process is completed, and we can more accurately determine who is considered a close contact, we will determine which individuals will need to remain in quarantine and which can resume normal activities.”
Richland 1 began the school year on an all-virtual learning schedule. But in October, the district shifted to a two-day “hybrid” model, with students alternating on campus twice a week and taking online courses the other three days of the week. The schedule is meant to minimize the amount of potential exposure to the coronavirus on campus.
Horry County Schools spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said North Myrtle Beach High School is conducting its own contact tracing to determine if any of their players might have affected, but no quarantines have been announced there.
High school sports reporter Lou Bezjak and the Myrtle Beach Sun News’ David Weissman contributed.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
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