Prep football: Ottumwa-Prairie football game canceled
Sep. 20—OTTUMWA — Ottumwa High School has canceled this Friday's home varsity football game with Cedar Rapids Prairie, resulting in a forfeit loss for the Bulldogs.
"Our offensive and defensive lines have been hammered by COVID-19, sickness and injuries," Ottumwa head football coach Brian Goodvin said. "We have three out with COVID, one with another illness and two with injuries just within the offensive line.
"We just looked at it from every angle possible. We just couldn't figure out a way to do it."
The game will go down as a 1-0 forfeit win for Cedar Rapids Prairie. Ottumwa falls to 0-5 with the loss.
"We've been hit with COVID much harder than we were hit with it last year," Goodvin said. "We're going to treat this more like a bye week. We'll work with the guys we have available, get healed up, do some sanitizing at our fieldhouse.
"It's been a every-week thing that we've had to deal with. It finally hit a breaking point on Friday. It showed us this is not a viable way to do business."
The scheduled freshman-sophomore game between Prairie and Ottumwa will be played at Schafer Stadium on Friday at 4:45 p.m. The Bulldog varsity team is next scheduled to host Cedar Rapids Jefferson, who is coming off a forfeiture loss this past week due to a lack of available players, on Oct. 1. The game is not only Homecoming, but also dedication night as former Ottumwa head football coaches Dave Clement and Tom Kopatich will be honored with the OHS fieldhouse being named after Clement while the football field at Schafer Stadium will be named after Kopatich.
"It's going to be week by week. You have to go with what you've got, but as far as kids being physically sick," Goodvin said. "We'll make plans on how to get kids healthy and hope to be ready to play Cedar Rapids Jefferson next week."
