In late July, the GHSA revealed that state high schools had reported 655 positive COVID-19 tests among coaches and players since June 8. Two of those cases came from Crisp County, a Class 3A school. Last season, the Cougars went 11-4 and reached the state championship.
Here, tackle Perici Gaines and receiver/linebacker Cortez Thomas — both seniors for this year’s Cougars squad — share their opposite experiences with coronavirus, in their own words.
Gaines: ‘My body was so exhausted’
On a Wednesday night, I started to get a bad headache. I took some medicine and thought it would just go away. But I woke up the next morning feeling worse and I called my grandma. With everything going on, I thought I might have a little sickness or something, like a common cold. I really didn’t want to go to the doctor, but she said, “Let’s go. Better to be safe than sorry.”
She took me to the doctor. They had me sitting in a tent. The nurse came back there and swabbed me. It went all the way up my nose, and they twisted it for 10 seconds. It was a lot of sneezing. They said I’d get the results back in 2-3 days. They sent me home with some medicine — I’m not sure what, but it was liquid — and that started helping me.
I started quarantining as soon as I got sick. I stayed in my room, upstairs. I only went downstairs if no one was there, to get Theraflu. My uncle told me about Theraflu and that worked better than what the doctor gave me. I think that’s what helped me overcome it faster than expected. I started that treatment before I got my test results.
I was taking medicine for three days straight. I was weak and couldn’t get out of bed. I didn’t have the energy to do anything. I’d tried to run the track outside in my neighborhood, but I had no energy to.
The doctor said I got it from a small germ and that it escalated to the virus. I don’t know how that works, but he said I got sick from the smallest germ. I don’t think I got it at football practice though. In my opinion, with practice at our school, they took every precaution. We had masked, everything was wiped down and sanitized after each use — not each group use, but each use. Everything got sanitized. There was no contact with each other. No touching. None of that. I would say I probably got it when I was at the store, or something. I really don’t know. I’m just going by what the doctor said.
My main symptoms were, from time to time, I’d have trouble breathing. Headaches, fatigue and fluid buildup in my chest. I wasn’t scared though. My grandma always told me to keep my faith in God and I knew it would blow over. I wasn’t stressing.
I live with my grandma and it’s just us two, so at one point I was worried she might get it. But then again, I wasn’t that worried because I never went downstairs at all when she was home. I did my best to stay away. My sister would come over and bring food to my door.
I just stayed in my room and slept most of the time because my body was so exhausted. I would just lay there until I fell asleep. I wasn’t even watching TV that much. I was sick for three days and then it started to ease off as the days went by.
I told my coaches I tested positive and I wasn’t able to return to practice until I was fully cleared. When I returned to practice, I was lifting the same I’d been lifting. I didn’t feel any weaker in my muscles, but I was getting tired more quickly at first. I had to get my endurance back after being inactive.
Now, I feel great. I have no trouble breathing, not headaches, nothing.
Getting coronavirus was terrible. It’s like you have no control over your body anymore. Everything is tired. Your muscles are of no use. You’re drowsy. You’re lazy. At one point, the way you have to get rest, you feel like you’re glued to your bed. You’re stuck in your house and you can’t go anywhere. It takes a lot to quarantine yourself. I’m not going to lie — after quarantine and I was finally able to go back out, it felt different. It felt like, I don’t know. Just different.
My advice is that if you think you have it, go ahead and start treating yourself ahead of the test results so that you can recover quickly and be back to normal.
Credit: Courtesy of Cortez Thomas
Credit: Courtesy of Cortez Thomas
Thomas: ‘I had no symptoms the whole time’
The only reason I had to get checked was that Perici had it. My parents told me to get tested, so I did. It came back positive, but I had no symptoms — nothing — the whole time.
I was kind of scared because there are younger kids in our house, too, and I didn’t want to get them infected. I also didn’t want to miss practice.
When I found out Perici was positive, I got tested 2-3 days later and got the results in 20-30 minutes. Before I got tested, though, I was just living life normal around my family. There’s five of us — my parents and an older and younger sibling. No one else in my family got it.
When I found out I tested positive, I started quarantining. At no point did I have symptoms, so it felt like I was being punished. Like I was grounded for two weeks. I’ve never been grounded that long — maybe a weekend once, or something. The whole 14 days I was bored. I wanted to get out, but I couldn’t go anywhere. And I was missing practice. I was so mad. I just played Fortnite and NBA 2K.
When I did leave my room, I’d have to with my mask on. Or, when I’d get my food, they’d have their mask on. I had to eat in my room.
I really don’t know how I got coronavirus. I wasn’t really going anywhere before I found out I had it. The only reason I got tested was because my parents encouraged me to get tested because my teammate had it. They were surprised I had it, but we weren’t trying to make it a bigger deal than it was. They didn’t want to scare me, because it was a big deal. We just stayed calm and worked together as a family to get healthier.
My advice is that everybody should get tested because it’s airborne. You could have it and never know. I never would have known I had it unless I got tested, so I could have been responsible for more deaths.
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