Dougherty County Schools on Tuesday suspended fall sports competitions at its three high schools - Monroe, Westover and Dougherty - until Oct. 1 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means no football games for the first month of the already delayed season, which is slated to begin the week of Sept. 4. In an email obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and written before Tuesday afternoon’s official announcement, Dougherty Schools superintendent Kenneth Dyer told principals and athletic directors that sports conditioning could continue.
‘‘If the (COVID-19) numbers in Dougherty County continue to improve, we’re optimistic about restarting athletic competitions,’' Dyer said in the email. “In case the numbers don’t improve enough for us to compete in the fall, we’ve already started looking into options for moving our fall sports to the spring.‘'
Dyer didn’t elaborate in the email or the district’s announcement what a move to spring would entail, but Dougherty is the fourth school district to cancel or postpone its sports seasons beyond the GHSA’s opening week of football games.
Rockdale County postponed sports for the fall semester for its three high schools, Salem, Heritage and Rockdale County, meaning they also could be looking at a spring football season if the GHSA would allow it.
Decatur city schools canceled its sports contests through Sept. 25. Class A schools Stewart County and Twiggs County canceled their fall sports entirely. Clayton County, which has 10 sports-playing high schools, suspended fall sports for two weeks through Aug. 21, but they would have two weeks or more to prepare if they’re able to restart quickly.
Dougherty has been one of the harder hit Georgia counties for coronavirus cases, with 2,732 confirmed cases and 171 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
However, Dyer said in Tuesday’s announcement that there had been no COVID-19 cases associated with athletics at any of the high schools.
“The move comes as athletics programs across the country struggle to cope with student-athletes and coaches who are contracting the COVID-19 virus,’' the school district’s news release stated. “In Dougherty County, the spread of COVID-19 remains at unacceptably high levels, currently averaging more than 15 new cases per day.‘'
