Photo By Stan Bonifacio: Pima’s Garrett Curtis looks for an opening in the Thatcher defense during their game Friday night. Half of the Pima team has been quarantined due to a COVID-19 exposure and it will cancel its next two games.
Games versus St. Johns and Benson to be canceled
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – Half of the Pima High School’s football team has been quarantined for COVID-19 and will have to cancel its upcoming games against St. Johns and Benson.
According to contact tracing done by the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services, a Pima football player tested positive for the virus, and about half the team had exposure to him. The exposure to cause a quarantine is 15 minutes or more of close contact without any masks being worn. The exposure was reportedly done Friday, Oct. 2.
Pima School Superintendent Sean Rickert said the school will follow Arizona Interscholastic Association regulations regarding return to play and that the team will possibly be able to return for its Oct. 23 game at Willcox.
“We’ll have to see what the county gives us as far as dates (of quarantine),” Rickert said.
He added that he wasn’t sure if any of the Thatcher team was exposed during the game either.
“The county health department will have to do their investigation as far as to contact tracing and figure out if the player was on the field and who he was on the field with,” Rickert said.
Graham County Health Department Director Brian Douglas confirmed the positive test for the Pima football player and advised that the players who were identified as close contacts have been quarantined as well. Douglas said none of the players from Thatcher have been identified as such and therefore none of them have been quarantined at this time.
The Pima High School Spirit Line was quarantined due to a positive test by a cheerleader last week, and the Willcox football team previously halted its practices and canceled its scheduled game Oct. 2 with Safford due to a positive test.
