Stewart County cancels fall sports due to COVID-19 concerns
Stewart County High School, about 40 miles south of Columbus, has canceled fall sports for the upcoming school year due to COVID-19 concerns.
The Knights are the third Class 1A school to cancel fall sports: Riverside Military Academy and Twiggs County canceled fall sports in May and July, respectively. The AJC first reported the news.
“With safety at the forefront of our decision, we as a district and community decided to cancel all of our fall sports due to COVID-19 and the increasing coronavirus cases in our area,” Stewart County Athletics Director and Head Football Coach Calvin Thomas said in a statement. “Parents expressed their concerns and gave valuable input through surveys, along with phone calls and texts. The safety of our kids and community is top priority and we did not want to put any of them in any uncompromising situations.”
The Knights would have played in the Georgia High School Association’s Region 5-1A Public this fall. They were scheduled to face local teams Jordan, Chattahoochee County, Manchester and Marion County in football.
The Knights went 1-9 in 2019, the lone win coming against Randolph-Clay. They played one Chattahoochee Valley team last year, ChattCo, and lost 34-0.
Stewart County was part of Stewart-Quitman High until 2008, when Quitman County reopened its own school, the AJC reported.
Stewart County Assistant Superintendent and Principal Joseph Gardner confirmed the news to the Ledger-Enquirer Thursday afternoon. The school had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
