Brownwood Lions head football coach and athletic director Sammy Burnett Wednesday afternoon provided an update after the news broke earlier in the day that a member of the varsity Lions football team tested positive for COVID-19, leading to a quarantine that will prevent the scheduled District 5-4A Division I football games at Midlothian Heritage and at Waco La Vega from being played the next two Fridays.

“We had a young man leave last Wednesday (Sept. 30) and was tested, he was trying to do the right thing in his and his family’s eyes, and he tested negative,” Burnett said. “He was told to return back to school and he did, he got to practice Thursday and to play Friday. Then late in the day Sunday he started to feel some symptoms and for his safety they took him back to the doctor and he was retested and he tested positive.”

Brownwood ISD issued the following press release Wednesday morning:

Based on a student-athlete testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, all varsity football-related activities involving students are suspended until those quarantined are cleared to return to campus. The student was last on campus on Oct. 2; we anticipate resuming varsity football activities on Oct. 19. Varsity games with Midlothian Heritage on Oct. 9 and La Vega on Oct. 16 are canceled. Subvarsity and rescheduling options are being examined under UIL 5-AAAA rules. Brownwood ISD added that it is working with the Brownwood Health Department to identify and notify anyone who may have had close contact with the student. Remote instruction plans for those students will be put into action while they are off-campus.

Once the positive result was shared with the Brownwood ISD, Burnett said, “I was asked to make a list of people that would be in close contact with that young man and we would go through the list. The way it worked out with the Health Department is pretty simple, it is a team sport and in that team sport there are a lot of bodily fluids that could be passed from sweat, to spit, to slobber, to snot, and because it’s a team sport, if a young man has an opportunity to get that bodily fluid passed through mist or whatever it may be, then you cannot exclude them from being in close contact.”

Based on the information the Brown County Health Department shared with Burnett, the varsity football team and several members of the JV have been quarantined.

“The JV team helps with the varsity almost daily in their run hulls and our team periods,” Burnett said. “I had to narrow it down to kids who has an opportunity to block the young man or be tackled by the young man or be in close proximity to the young man. It came to be that it was a good portion of the group.”

Therefore, the junior varsity games against Heritage and La Vega have been canceled as well and will likely not be rescheduled.

Meanwhile, the Freshman Maroon Lions and Freshman/Sophomore team will not be affected by the quarantine as they did not come into close contact with the player that tested positive, Burnett added.

Due to these recent developments, the subvarsity schedules going forward will be altered. The first change is a combined Brownwood subvarsity team will visit Bangs at 5 p.m. Thursday.

On Sept. 21, the District Executive Committed voted to move up the district football schedule one week for just a scenario, which led to the Lions facing Stephenville last week instead of this Friday as originally slated. Week 11 is now a bye week, and Burnett has issued a proposal that the Lions visit Midlothian Heritage on Nov. 6 to make up the game. However, with the Lions having to postpone two games, and with no other dates available, Burnett stated the La Vega game appears headed for a forfeit loss.

“I have a proposal that I have submitted to the rest of the district about how we should handle this on our side and how this will affect the district the least,” Burnett said. “The most likely thing to do is move the Heritage game back to the Nov. 6 date, but we’ll probably have to take a forfeit to La Vega because there is no more room to reschedule. We’d pick up our schedule as it is with Alvarado (Oct. 23) and Waxahachie Life (Oct. 30), then play Heritage at the end. We want to make this as painless as possible and we sure don’t want to forfeit two games. This would give our kids the opportunity to finish the season and still have an opportunity to get to the playoffs.

“I don’t think they would make us forfeit two games. I’ve talked to too many coaches in the district that understand what we’re going through, they’re sorry and their prayers are out for us and our kids and those that are impacted. Their hope is we can have as normal a schedule as possible and they pray that it doesn’t happen to them because we all know it can happen at any time. They’re in agreement they don’t want us to have to forfeit games if we can reschedule.”

Burnett added the Heritage game, and not the La Vega game, would have to be made up first, if allowed, as it was the first game on the scheduled to be canceled.

Due to a pair of student holidays Friday and Monday, the Lions football players – who will now be learning remotely – will only miss four to six regular classroom days.

“That’s huge because education is No. 1 for us,” Burnett said.