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Through the first five weeks of the football season Bellwood-Antis had been unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, that changed dramatically yesterday. 

An hour before practice was set to begin, football coach Nick Lovrich was informed that Friday’s game against Mount Union would be canceled due to a COVID case in the Mount Union School District.

B-A still has plans to hold its Homecoming events for this week, and find a way to recognize the girls on the court. 

“Yesterday as I was going to practice around 2:30. Dr. McInroy and Mr. Schreier told me that Mt. Union had some issues and that our game was canceled,” said head Coach Lovrich. 

Mr. Lovrich has tried to view the cancelation is a positive light. The Blue Devils are undefeated and gearing up for the District playoffs.

“There are benefits of not having a game this week,” said coach Lovrich. “Our guys will get a chance to heal up any small injuries they have, and we can get some fundamental work in with our guys that we missed because of not having 3-a-days. Nick Plank actually had a good observation. He said that we are just lucky all of our players are healthy. To me, that’s a great perspective to take on the situation.” 

Even with the game being canceled, the Blue devils will still be in the No. 1 seed heading into the District 6 2A playoffs next week. While the cancellation will force an adjustment to the district’s Homecoming plans, it will not affect Senior Night. The team had held Senior Night earlier in the season in case of incidents like this one.

Other teams in the area have also been affected by the COVID pandemic. After a positive case in the Clearfield School District earlier in the year,  Penns Valley had to have a 2-week quarantine period for their players. Tyrone Philipsburg-Osceola also lost games as a result of the Clearfield case. Bishop Guilfoyle is on a two-week quarantine for a COVID case within their program.

“It is very disappointing to cancel a varsity football game, especially for Homecoming,” said Athletic Director Charlie Burch. “The circumstances are unique, and we have to be flexible. It will be difficult at this point. A lot of conferences wont play outside of their conference under these circumstances. We are going to take it day to day and week by week, and hope to get more games with a playoff run.”

The cancellation has had some mixed emotions from the players on the team.

“They already cut out four of our games this year, so to hear of another cut to our season is extremely disappointing,” said senior Owen Shedlock. “It’s tough to practice all week without a game at the end, but we’re looking forward to the playoffs next week.” 

District officials have looked for potential makeup opponents, but a game on Friday is unlikely.

“We will get through this,” said Mr. Lovrich. “We have adjusted to all the other changes that we have been forced to make. Our group is a resilient group who really believes that we can only control so much. We control how we practice this week and how we play next week. We will do whatever the circumstances call for and make it a positive situation for the Bellwood-Antis Football program.”