News

The Arcata High School Tigers are now the second local football team to have to forfeit a playoff game due to an outbreak of COVID-19.

The team was scheduled to have the home field advantage Saturday against the Justin-Siena High School Braves, which hail from Napa, and was one game away from a shot at the North Coast Section Football Championship title.

“I talked to a lot of our seniors and they’re devastated,” Arcata head coach Jamal Jones told HumboldtSports. “This is a year we felt we could challenge and make a run for a state title.”

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South Fork’s football team, the Cubs, also had to forfeit their Nov. 12 game at North Coast Section playoffs due to the outbreak and a few days later Southern Humboldt Unified School District officials shutdown both the high school and Miranda Junior High School until after the Thanksgiving break.

According to a Nov. 14 letter from SHUSD Superintendent Stephanie Steffano-Davis, school staff were conducting contract tracing to contain the spread of virus.

“The outbreak has been linked to gatherings unrelated to school which some of our students attended,” Steffano-Davis states in the letter.

Editor's note: This story was updated from a previous version to correct the scheduled date of the now forfeited playoff game. The Journal regrets the error.