GREENFIELD – Football practice has resumed at Greenfield High School this week, after the program was forced to cancel practice for two days a week ago due to COVID-19.
Greenfield, which runs as a cooperative program along with Turners Falls, Pioneer Valley Regional and Mohawk Trail Regional, paused team activities on March 4 after someone associated with the football team tested positive for COVID-19. There was no practice on Thursday or Friday as a result.
Dr. Judy Houle, the Greenfield School Department’s lead administrator since Feb. 20, said she did not know if the infected individual is a player or a member of the coaching staff. She said contract tracing was conducted and “those folks who were not in close contact with” the individual were informed they did not need to quarantine.
According to The Associated Press, the goal of contact tracing is to alert people who may have been exposed to someone with the novel coronavirus, and prevent them from spreading it to others. Houle said anyone who comes into contact with an infected person is advised to quarantine for 10 days.
The football season began last week for the upcoming Fall II season, which was created by the MIAA to serve as a wedge season between winter and spring. It is serving as a place for the fall sports that were postponed due to the pandemic – football, soccer and volleyball, locally. Greenfield’s first football game is scheduled for March 26 at Mahar Regional School. The Green Wave are scheduled to play a four-game season with other tilts against Frontier, Athol and Franklin Tech.