The Columbus North High School varsity and Central Middle School eighth-grade boys basketball teams have entered quarantine after learning they were exposed to COVID-19 during games last week.
North came into contact with a case during a home game against Shelbyville Friday while Central was exposed during a game against Zionsville Saturday. Both of the positive tests were from players on the opposing teams.
“We found out Monday morning that one of the players that played from Shelbyville tested positive for COVID,” North coach Paul Ferguson said.
Players from both Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. schools will quarantine for 14 days.
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Ferguson said Tuesday that none of his players had shown symptoms of COVID-19, and that they will be allowed to return to practice Dec. 19. Players will then need to get a required number of practices in before they can play games again.
Superintendent Jim Roberts said players and coaches from North and Central will not be required to get tested.
“They’re going to be out for 14 days regardless of whether they have a test administered and it is a negative or positive,” Roberts said. “Once those 14 days expire, they can return.”
North also played a home game on Saturday against Martinsville.
Roberts said locker rooms are sanitized nightly by a fogger that disinfects the facility.
“It’s a more complete way than having somebody go in there and kind of hand-wiping everything and hoping they get everything,” Roberts said.
Roberts and Bartholomew County Health Officer Brian Niedbalski said if the county moves into the red category that sports could be put on pause until the county moves back to orange. The Indiana State Department of Health, which listed the county as orange Tuesday, will update its color-coded map today at noon.
“Right now, we’re basically following the county designation of color,” Roberts said. “As went into eLearning, our county color has remained orange all that time. As we look into the future, if our county would go red, at that point in time, we would look at postponing all activity for extracurriculars.”
Niedbalski echoed that no changes were to be made Tuesday.
“I constantly communicate with BCSC about developments,” Niedbalski said. “Further restrictions will not be made at this time, but we are always at liberty to make changes, especially if the county moves into the red.”
The Bull Dogs’ scheduled games against Fishers, Columbus East, Scottsburg and Terre Haute South have been postponed.
“We’re hoping to reschedule all the games we miss,” Ferguson said. “But we know that there might be some challenges with COVID and other teams potentially having to reschedule games also.”
