Burns will not play one of its final two games of the 2020 season and will reschedule the other due to COVID-19 quarantines, the school’s activities director said Monday on Twitter.
Burns AD Barry Ward said the team will also cancel scheduled JV games.
Burns High School was notified on Saturday that due to COVID-19 quarantines our football team will not be playing our last 2 Varsity football games vs. Newcastle and Torrington as regularly scheduled. We will be canceling our JV games vs. Wheatland and Mitchell, Nebraska.— Barry Ward (@BurnsBronc) October 12, 2020
On Saturday, Laramie County School District No. 2, of which Burns is a part, posted on its website that a student at Burns Junior/Senior High School had tested positive for COVID-19 and that some students had been placed under quarantine.
This is the third in-season cancellation of high school football games in Wyoming due to COVID-19 this year.
Douglas and Powell canceled a mid-September game, while Newcastle and Buffalo canceled a game in early September.
During the summer, Wyoming Indian and St. Stephens canceled their fall sports seasons.
As of Monday afternoon, Wyoming had more than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19 statewide. As of Monday, the state was averaging nearly 120 confirmed cases per day, its highest total since the outbreak tracing began on March 20.
In all, 24% of all active statewide confirmed cases are in people 18 years old or younger.
Burns’ two remaining games were with Torrington on Friday and with Newcastle on Oct. 23.
Over the summer, Wyoming High School Activities Association Commissioner Ron Laird said games lost due to COVID-19 would be treated as cancellations, not as forfeits.
Burns is 1-5. The Broncs, at 1-4 in Class 2A East Conference play, were no longer in playoff contention.
Burns will make up its game with Newcastle on Oct. 29, Ward announced Monday afternoon via Twitter. Newcastle is also not in playoff contention.
–patrick
This post was updated at 7:02 p.m. MDT to reflect the continuing status of Burns’ season.
What does the cancellation of this game do to the 2A Playoff situation? Torrington needed this game to keep pace with the win percentage of Big Horn and Upton.
WTFB, when the WHSAA set up the COVID-19 contingencies, the plan was that if any games were lost due to cancellations, the coaches from the conference would decide on seeding. So that would be my guess — the coaches from the 2A East get together on the Saturday after the regular season is done and try to come to some agreement on who’s seeded where.
–patrick
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