Pelham, Early County cancel football games until October

Pelham and Early County in South Georgia have canceled games until October because of positive COVID-19 tests or contact.

Pelham acknowledged a positive test among a member of its team late Monday afternoon, and Early, which played Pelham last week, also shut down because of contact with that player.

Pelham City Schools superintendent Floyd Fort made the announcement for his school Monday afternoon. ''This is a very unfortunate situation because I know our players and coaches have worked so hard this summer preparing for the season,'' Fort said. "Hopefully we will be ready to play Cairo on Friday, October 2.''

Early County coach Joel Harvin told ajc.com that school district rules led to 31 players going into quarantine.

''The regional health director told us that any kid that got on the field with that other player would have to quarantine,'' Harvin said. "We were up in the game and you do what you normally do, and we played all of our second- and third-team. That includes the defensive backs that didn’t even get close to him.''

Pelham had games scheduled against Irwin County and Clinch County. Irwin quickly replaced its Sept. 18 game with Cook.

Early County was scheduled to play Mitchell County this week and Enterprise, Ala., on Sept. 25.