Flu takes toll on football teams

Some games around the state have been postponed to allow players to recover.

DAYTON (AP) — The flu bug is taking a bite out of high school football.

Flu-like symptoms have forced postponement or cancellation of games, felled players during contests, left coaches with no players at certain positions, altered practice policies and created worry about infecting opposing teams and other students.

Dayton’s Carroll High School postponed a Friday game to Sunday game a few weeks ago against because of mass sickness at the Cincinnati-area opponent Roger Bacon High School. And Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City played a game Sunday postponed from Friday against Bellefontaine.

Tippecanoe coach Charlie Burgbacher knew the Friday game was in jeopardy when 28 of his 45 varsity players were absent from school with the flu.

“We were getting to the point where we had some positions with no players,” Burgbacher said.

In Nebraska last week, two schools canceled their game after nearly half of one team — the Friend Bulldogs — came down sick with the flu. The 26-player Phoenix High team in Medford, Ore., canceled its game against Sutherlin because about 15 Phoenix players either were out sick with flu symptoms, recovering from them or showing signs of them.

“It’s never easy to start moving events around,” said John Kronour, superintendent of Tipp City Exempted Village Schools. “But you don’t want to be that district that passes it on to another district.”

Tim Stried, spokesman for the Ohio High School Athletics Association, said schools aren’t required to report postponements or cancellations. However, he said the association is discussing what to do if the flu sidelines a team during the postseason playoffs.

“There are a lot of sticky situations that could arise out there,” he said Wednesday.

Coaches and administrators say the illnesses have taken a physical toll on players whose games require plenty of exertion.

Nick Bower, quarterback of Fairmont High School in the Dayton suburb of Kettering, woke up Friday feeling achy. Although he started and played against Wayne High School that night, he didn’t make it through the entire contest.

“By the end of the game, he was already showered and at home,” said coach Brian Blevins.

Alex Trotter, a Tippecanoe tight end and defensive lineman who missed four days of school with sickness before playing Sunday.

“At halftime, I felt like I usually do after the whole game,” he said.

Many players once would have shrugged off sickness to make practice. But coaches now worry about illness spreading to the rest of the team. At Fairmont, players with fevers are not allowed at practice, no matter how slightly elevated their temperatures.

Many coaches, like Chaminade Julienne’s Andy Helms, stay in constant communication with the attendance office.

“They e-mail me up an attendance list,” said Helms, who was talking with a sick offensive lineman by cell phone and sending home his star running back with aches last week. “It’s something you always deal with, but the past two weeks have really been a big deal.”