Clear Creek COVID case causes cancellation

TIFFIN - The fate of Mt. Pleasant's varsity football opener against Clear Creek-Amana was thrown up in the air after the Clear Creek-Amana School District announced a positive COVID case from one of their students.

The Gazette's Grace King broke a story on Thursday morning that CCA High School had moved classes to virtual online learning after the positive case was reported late Wednesday night. The school was fully online on Thursday, and the decision was made to cancel the scheduled junior varsity football game against Mt. Pleasant.

'We were supposed to go there tonight, so I am assuming they had something within the school, and so they didn't want us going up there,” said Mt. Pleasant Athletic Director Scot Lamm. 'I know Johnson County, with the University of Iowa, is probably struggling a little bit to get a handle on everything anyway.”

According to a release from CCA, there was a large gathering on Saturday night, which had many CCA students in attendance and potentially increased their risk of exposure.

'The closure of school and activities today is a direct result of the choices students are making and we encourage families to recognize the unfortunate outcome and how it affects everyone,” said the school in their news release.

The student was in school Monday and all mitigation strategies were followed correctly at school, according to the news release. Initial discussion with Johnson County Public Health has confirmed that students and staff would not be considered 'close contacts.”

Friday night's game is scheduled to be at Mt. Pleasant High School. Lamm said he has talked with CCA's Athletic Director and it is 'all systems go,” as of now, for the varsity game to be played.

'We're planning on it,” Lamm said. 'But as with everything else, we're very fluid.”

Lamm said Mt. Pleasant has been doing a good job with protecting its athletes, and that the school will stick with the policies in place for Friday night's game.

'We feel like we've got a pretty good plan in place to protect our student athletes, and our students in general,” he said. 'As far as the game, we're going to use mitigation strategies put in place by the Iowa High School Athletic Association, and we'll just do our part, and hopefully things are good enough and take care of themselves.”

Lamm also said Mt. Pleasant has its own policies in place in case a similar occourance happens to them.

'We are following guidelines from the CDC and we are working daily with Henry County Public Health,” Lamm said. 'The people at HCPH have been outstanding, and our Superintendent is in contact with them daily.”

The Panthers and Clippers are scheduled for the freshman game to begin at 5 p.m., with the 7:30 p.m. varsity game to follow.