ZEELAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The Lakeshore’s most successful high school football team in 2020 may not play any more games this fall…and neither may one of its worst.
Zeeland Public Schools officials announced on Monday that the Zeeland West High’s varsity and junior varsity football games against Mona Shores this week have been cancelled, resulting in forfeit losses for the Dux. This is due to a positive test of an undisclosed player in the program, with contact tracing throughout both the varsity and junior varsity teams.
On Tuesday afternoon, West Ottawa High School Principal Jason Reineke, in a letter to parents, said that the Panthers will surrender its Friday contest at Grand Haven High due to the Ottawa County Health Department investigating a “COVID positive student athlete from the opposing team who participated in the October 16 game vs West Ottawa.”
Contact tracing will keep the 0-5 Panthers in quarantine through October 30; Athletic Director Bill Kennedy told M-Live that no decision was immediately made as to whether West Ottawa would participate in the MHSAA football tournament next weekend.
That “opposing team” from last Friday – Hudsonville High – has subsequently forfeited its Friday game versus Jenison as a result of this test.
It’s now three times that an area high school has had to forfeit a varsity football game this season due to the novel coronavirus, with Saugatuck’s slated homecoming game with visiting Delton Kellogg wiped out on Oct. 9th. Fennville has had to forfeit its past two games, at Constantine and at Parchment, due to extensive injuries that have seriously depleted the Blackhawks’ roster. Fennville’s scheduled contest in Kalamazoo against United (a joint team from Hackett Catholic Prep and Kalamazoo Christian) this Friday is still “on.”
ZPS officials add that a decision on whether the West Dux, who finish the regular season at 4-2, can compete in the upcoming MHSAA football tournament next weekend is pending.
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