Fremont football won’t compete in state tournament after multiple players contract COVID-19

The Fremont High School football team has more than two dozen seniors on it. They were getting ready to host a playoff game Friday against Copper Hills to start their run in the 6A state tournament.

But those hopes came grinding to a halt Monday when they learned their season was over before the best part of it began.

Fremont won’t get to compete for a 6A championship because “multiple players” on the team recently tested positive for coronavirus, the Weber School District announced in a press release. A two-week quarantine started for the team last Wednesday, which was the last known date of exposure.

The quarantine means the Silverwolves will have to forfeit the playoff game against the Grizzlies because games aren’t allowed to be rescheduled.

Silverwolves coach Ross Arnold, when reached via email by The Salt Lake Tribune, said he struggled to find words to properly express how he felt about his team having to forfeit.

“I’m numb and it feels like we just got punched in the gut,” he said.

Arnold said the possibility always existed that a team could face a quarantine situation that would render it out of the postseason. But for that situation to come to fruition for his team “just plain sucks,” he said.

“It’s especially disappointing for my 30 seniors to never get the opportunity to wear their pads and Fremont jersey again or to compete together with their friends for their school and community,” Arnold added. “I love my players and coaching staff and I have enjoyed competing with them this season. So to have it end this way is disappointing to put it lightly.”

Fremont was ranked 13th in the state’s ranking system and finished the regular season with a 5-5 record.

Contests in various high school sports have been canceled throughout the fall season, which the Utah High School Activities Association decided to start on time. But no sport seems to have been more impacted than football. Just in the last month, more than a dozen games were postponed or canceled altogether.

Due to concerns with the coronavirus, the state tournament in football won’t take place at Rice-Eccles Stadium.