Athletes across the State of Texas are being tested for COVID-19. According to the Texas High School Coaches Association, 314 schools across 244 school districts have reported testing data collected throughout the summer. These are the results reported by the THSCA:
The Good News:
Only 0.43% of athletes tested positive. 0 Deaths.
The Bad News:
278 athletes tested positive. 4 hospitalized.
*Note: THSCA reported that 0.00425% of athletes tested positive. That is the number that has circulated through social media and the news. They have appeared to correct that to 0.425%. Also worth mentioning, these numbers do not represent all of Texas. These are results self-reported from schools in response to a survey.
Your perspective will determine how you see these results. If we lead with a headline that 278 athletes tested positive, much of our audience would comment that the 2020 Texas high school football season needs to be canceled. On the other side, if we lead with a headline that only 0.43% of athletes tested positive, most of our audience would comment that all students should be back and school and all Fall sports fully resume. In fact, any way in which we word this story as we share it on Facebook or Twitter, you will see people respond strongly to the wording in both extremely negative and positive ways.
It is not our intention at TexasHSFootball.com to take a stand either way. Obviously, we benefit from having a full high school football season to cover and report on, but the safety and health of the young athletes, and of all Texans, is most important to our media organization. We will say that the initial numbers are more promising than most people did predict, but we have to see how the results come back with more testing, and how the 278 athletes who have been infected with the Corona Virus recover. We also have to see how schools that have had athletes test positive respond and what further measures they or the UIL may take.
Here are the results as shared by THSCA:
65,290 Athletes.
278 Positive Tests.
4 Cases Traced to Practice.
0 Deaths.
0.43% of Athletes Testing Positive
We posted a story yesterday on the update of the 2020 football season.
(You can view that story by clicking here: https://texashsfootball.com/2020-texas-highschool-football-season-update/)
In the story, we mentioned that, while practices have been going on for nearly a week, we had only heard positive reports. That did change throughout the day as we learned of programs suspending practice for two weeks, and one school canceling their season.
The Greyhounds of Taft High School suspended their practices and season for two weeks due to positive COVID-19 tests. Then, we learned that Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco High School, in Ben Bolt, TX, canceled their entire football season. However, Ben Bolt Athletic Director, Garry Cunningham, in an interview with Quinton Martinez of the Caller Times, seemed to indicate that it was more a response to their ISD voting to not have in-class school until November 2nd, making the timeline to have a football season unrealistic.
We await news of how other schools will respond to the positive tests. It is likely that we will see several schools suspending their practices for two weeks, and schools that have experienced multiple athletes testing positive for COVID-19 may face tougher decisions.
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