Ohatchee sidelined
- Updated: October 12, 2020
Lady Indians’ varsity squad hit with 14-day COVID quarantine on the eve of the area tournament
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OHATCHEE – Rebecca Hughes had to make worst call to her Ohatchee volleyball team Sunday night that she’s ever had to make as a coach.
She had to tell the varsity players they were quarantined for the next two weeks after a teammate tested positive for COVID-19 and wouldn’t be able to play in the area tournament Tuesday at Pleasant Valley.
Because the coaches were not affected, the Tribe will be able to play in the event, but they will field a JV squad hoping to keep their senior-rich varsity’s season alive. The players would be available to return the day their regional starts in Huntsville – if they make it that far.
“You never want to do that to your kids,” Hughes said. “These are the two weeks you work your entire season for and they’re just being stripped from them.”
Hughes declined to identify the player who tested positive except to confirm she is a non-starter.
The Lady Indians, the second seed in the Class 3A Area 11 tournament at Pleasant Valley, are scheduled to play Piedmont at 4 p.m. The winner earns a spot in the sub-regionals and will play the PV-Weaver winner for the area championship.
The 2-3 matchup is generally the most hotly contested matchup in the area tournament.
Hughes said the positive-testing player’s parents informed her of the test results about 7:30 Sunday night and the county’s head nurse shut the program down about 90 minutes later.
“I had to Zoom my girls and let them know their season is over,” Hughes said. “It’s frustrating because there are other teams that had to quarantine this season and they have but they’re back for the playoffs. It stinks for my girls. It’s devastating.”
She said the Lady Indians are trying to appeal from every avenue and several board members have called the school in response. She believes the decision was made after the player responded to a nurse’s question about whom she had been around recently with a general “the volleyball team.”
Hughes wants to offer video evidence of the player not breaching the 6/15 rule – being within six feet of another person for 15 minutes – during the only time she would have had contact with teammates, last Thursday’s home match against Faith Christian. The player was seated between two players, which the Lady Indians would argue would subject those players to quarantine but not the entire team.
As it is, one of the JV players who would have been a replacement player Tuesday also has been quarantined because of her proximity to the impacted player in the classroom.
“We have been fighting tooth and nail all night, last night and today, calling who we had to call,” Hughes said. “We didn’t want to go down without a fight.”
The Lady Indians are the fifth volleyball team among the seven in the Calhoun County Schools system quarantined because of COVID. White Plains, Weaver, Pleasant Valley and Saks all were sidelined earlier this year. Other in-county teams have had individual players quarantined, but the rest of the team kept playing.
Hughes – and Ohatchee principal Bobby Tittle previously – have said the school has been following all the COVID protocols and guidelines and have had an “extremely limited” number of positives as a result. She questioned the consistency of the application of the quarantine.
“It’s insanely frustrating that we’re putting a blanket quarantine on these volleyball (teams) and you have football teams who are testing positive and picking and choosing who to quarantine,” she said. “If we’re going to have a blanket thing, it needs to be blanket across all sports.”
“The frustrating part is we were doing what we were told to do and we followed the guidelines set forth by the CDC and the county and we still have the quarantine,” Tittle said. “You tell these girls to follow the 6/15 and you follow the 6/15 and the guidelines and you offer video evidence and it doesn’t matter right now.”
Hughes remains hopeful the Lady Indians will receive a positive resolution before the tournament – “I would like to hope somebody will make the right call and do the right thing,” she said – but without intervention it doesn’t appear likely. Still, she is confident in the junior varsity’s ability against a Piedmont team the varsity beat both times they played in the area schedule.
“We are planning to take our JV team to the area tomorrow and just represent our school and see if we can pull off a win in the area tournament and maybe make it to subregion with these girls,” she said. “We’re going to go out and do the best we can. That’s what they wanted to do for the varsity girls. They don’t want their season to end like this so they’re going to fight for a couple days for them.”
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