Mosquito-Borne EEE Ends Friday Night Football In Parts Of Mass.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120912/NEWS/109129842/1009/sports

Costa was leaving the store with a shopping cart full of bug spray to give to his coaches when he saw Grafton High athletic director Karrah Ellis making the same purchase.

“It’s been crazy this week,” Costa said.

While three people in Central Massachusetts have recently contracted EEE, school officials are taking steps to protect their athletes, coaches and fans from the mosquito-borne illness.

And for many schools that means moving Friday night football games — the most popular sporting events and a source of town pride and revenue — to Saturday afternoons.

As of last night, seven of this weekend’s games had been moved from Friday to Saturday: Groton-Dunstable at Murdock (11 a.m.), South at Oxford (11 a.m.), Athol at Narragansett (1 p.m.), Leicester at Oakmont (1 p.m.), Uxbridge at Grafton (1 p.m.) and Wachusett at Algonquin (3 p.m.).

David Prouty moved its home game against Northbridge from 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

Some schools — such as Auburn and Clinton — are hoping chemical sprays applied on and around their football fields will help save night games. Auburn plans to spray today and test mosquito counts on Thursday before making a decision to move its home game against Holliston to Saturday. Clinton hosts Gardner.

Other schools — such as Millbury and Quaboag — will make decisions on moving games today.

“I think it’s just going to steamroll with all the superintendents and athletic directors,” Leicester football coach Tim Griffiths said. “I think by the end of the week everyone is going to play day games until further notice. I think I can speak for a lot of high school coaches, we all prefer to play at night.”

Most officials expect other game dates will be moved through the end of October when the mosquito threat will diminish with the arrival of colder weather.

According to the state Department of Public Health, the threat of EEE is “critical” in Westboro, Athol, Orange and Royalston, and “high” in Shrewsbury, Grafton, Northboro, Upton, Hopkinton, Southboro, Erving, Petersham, Phillipston, Templeton, Warwick, Wendell and Winchendon.

Shrewsbury High is one of many area high schools that have moved or postponed all night sporting events indefinitely. That includes next weekend’s football game against Doherty, which will now be played at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22.

Costa said much of his time has been spent finding fields to accommodate varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams.

“At first I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal,” Costa said. “But you find out there is a lot of trickle down involved with moving these games because then you have to move the junior varsity and freshman games and it gets a little more messy.”

Algonquin Regional in Northboro made the decision Monday to move or postpone all its night games.

According to athletic director Fran Whitten, Algonquin will only play day games until the first hard frost, which he hopes will be in mid-October.

Whitten said moving football games from night to day will cost the school money from ticket sales and concessions, but said the most important factor in making any decision is the safety of players, coaches and fans.

“With no Friday night football and no night soccer, it will impact the budget, but that’s something we’re going to have to figure out how to compensate for down the road,” Whitten said.

Whitten has been a school administrator for 16 years and can’t remember EEE being an issue — at least not in Central Massachusetts.

“Sometimes down in the southeastern part of the state, like Duxbury and Silver Lake (in Kingston), this happens to them all the time,” Whitten said. “As a matter of fact, they schedule very few night games to start the fall in preparation for this because it happens to them so often.”

Murdock High in Winchendon made the decision yesterday to postpone all night activities until the end of the month. Athletic director Jenna Hunt said Murdock’s home game against Tyngsboro on Sept. 28 may also be moved.

“We’re taking it until the end of September,” Hunt said. “We didn’t look at any other schools when making the decision, we just know Winchendon was one of the effected towns, so we’re going to take all the precautions needed.”

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