Clairton cancels Week 4 football game with Bishop Canevin

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 | 9:50 PM

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Clairton football practices are shut down until next week over covid-19 concerns and Saturday’s game against Bishop Canevin was canceled, the school announced Wednesday night.

The actions were taken in response to “several athletes showing symptoms that may be related to covid-19,” said a message on the school’s website, calling the shutdown “precautionary.”

Bears coach Wayne Wade said he’s optimistic his team will miss only one game.

“Best case scenario, we’re back on the field next week looking to play Imani Christian on (Oct. 9),” Wade said. “Worst case scenario is one of these kids tests positive and we’re done for two weeks.”

Currently, there are no positive cases, athletic director Ted Ulmer said. The team is tentatively scheduled to resume practice Tuesday.

“We’re doing this out of an abundance of caution,” Ulmer said. “We had several players go home from practice this week. Rather than push things, we thought this was the most prudent decision.”

Clairton (3-0) is the top-ranked team in WPIAL Class A. The Bears were scheduled to visit Bishop Canevin (2-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday for an Eastern Conference game.

The game likely won’t be rescheduled since neither team has any open weeks or nonconference matchups among their remaining games.

This is the second time Clairton’s football team has dealt with covid-19 concerns. The Bears shut down workouts in July when an asymptomatic athlete tested positive. That time, the team quarantined and returned to offseason workouts two weeks later.

“Now it’s not that easy,” Wade said. “We’re not going to be able to make up this game. It’s a conference game. How does that affect playoffs?”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Clairton