COVID-19 persists to wreak havoc on high school sports with cancellations, rescheduling

WASHINGTON, Ind. (WFIE) - The coronavirus has obviously had a massive impact on all walks of life, including the world of sports.

This remains to be the case with high school football this season, as COVID-19 has turned scheduling into a major juggling act.

For example, McLean County and Washington met up at Hatchet Hollow on Saturday night for a “pop-up” game. This comes one day after the Cougars lost their original opponent when Breckinridge County was forced to cancel due to COVID issues.

Following the cancellation, McLean County head coach Zach Wagner went searching for a replacement opponent and found one with Washington, which already had an open week.

The Hatchets jumped at the chance to schedule Saturday’s game after their Week 1 matchup with West Vigo also had to be canceled because of the coronavirus.

Wagner talked with 14 Sports about how unpredictable the past two seasons have been due to the pandemic.

“I think that unfortunately, it’s the new norm, and looking ahead, this may be how our season goes,” Wagner said. “It is frustration added to the season to boot, that not only are we coaching, but we’re keeping our kids, our families and our community safe by following every protocol that we can. So we wanted to make sure this year going in - in the event of a canceled game, which we got - that we were going to play whoever we could just to assure that our kids got game-time reps.”

Barring any unforeseen changes, McLean County is scheduled to play next week at Grayson County, while Washington is slated to host Gibson Southern.

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