UW Huskies’ season opener canceled after Cal player tests positive for COVID-19
For the fourth time, Washington has rescheduled its 2020 season opener.
It won’t be Michigan on Sept. 5. It won’t be Stanford on Sept. 26. Now, it won’t be Cal on Nov. 7, either.
The Huskies’ game against Cal, which was supposed to put an end of the long wait for the start of the season, was canceled on Thursday afternoon. Cal requested to cancel the game after an athlete tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the resulting isolation of additional players under contact tracing protocols, the Bears didn’t have have the minimum number of scholarship players available.
In order to play a game, the Pac-12 requires a minimum of at least 53 scholarship players — including seven scholarship offensive linemen, one scholarship quarterback and four scholarship defensive linemen.
The game will be declared a no contest.
The Huskies will now turn their attention to another potential season opener: Oregon Stte at Husky Stadium on Nov. 14. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.
”Our students, coaches and staff have put in incredible amount of hard work to get to this point and we are deeply disappointed they won’t have the opportunity to compete Saturday in Berkeley,” UW athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement. “I’m also disappointed for Husky Nation, they have been so patient and supportive, and we know they couldn’t wait to cheer on our Dawgs this weekend. With that said, the policies and protocols developed by the Pac-12, local and state officials placed the health and safety of students, coaches and staff at the forefront. We will now turn our attention to next week and start our preparations for Oregon State.”
Cal reported on Wednesday that a player had tested positive for COVID-19 and was asymptomatic, according to The Associated Press. After his regular daily antigen test came back positive, the supplemental PCR test also returned a positive result. It was the first positive test on the Bears’ football team since practice started in October.
Cal said in a release that it followed the guidance from University Health Services Infection Control and Berkeley Public Health on contact tracing, quarantining, symptom monitoring and treatment. The Bay Area’s requirements are more strict than other cities across the country, where college football games have been played involving teams with positive cases.
The Bears held a limited practice on Wednesday, but Wilcox declined to say how many players were absent due to contact tracing.
“The health and well-being of our student-athletes is always at the forefront of our decision making,” Knowlton said in a statement. “We have been diligent in the development and execution of our return-to-play plan, and our goal all along has been to provide a safe environment and to mitigate risk as much as possible. We know how much our team and the greater Cal Athletics community was looking forward to the start of the football season this weekend. While we are disappointed in our inability to play this week, we are confident that we have made the right decision. As we have seen across the country, we knew that there would be COVID-19 challenges, and we will continue to follow our protocols to support the health of our student-athletes.”
Said Wilcox: “It is very disappointing that we will not be opening our 2020 season this Saturday night against Washington,” Wilcox said. “My heart goes out first and foremost to all of our players who have been through so much since the pandemic began and worked so hard under difficult circumstances to prepare themselves to play. They have done so well following the protocols that have been put in place, but as we are finding out first-hand, playing football during 2020 is a fragile situation.”
Since June 4, Cal has conducted 3,547 total PCR tests among all athletes, through Oct. 30, with 20 positive results. UW has conducted 4,126 PCR tests since June 15 with 41 positive cases. The Huskies recently paused offseason baseball workouts due to positive cases on the team.
Lake addressed the positives on the baseball team during a call with the media on Thursday, which was held before the game against Cal was canceled.
“We don’t see anybody,” Lake said of the football facility “There’s nobody that comes over here. We don’t leave our little footprint here. So that’s been a negative for years, where we don’t get to go hang out with baseball coaches, volleyball coaches and see the other student-athletes.
“But now it’s obviously a positive. We are literally in our own bubble over here. No other student-athletes come over here and our guys don’t leave this footprint at all. So with this coronavirus situation, us being over here by ourselves has turned into a positive.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 12:14 PM with the headline "UW Huskies’ season opener canceled after Cal player tests positive for COVID-19."
