Baldwin cancels 2 football games after coach tests positive for covid-19

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, September 17, 2020 | 1:00 PM

Baldwin shut down all football activities for at least 14 days after a member of the coaching staff tested positive for covid-19, the school announced Thursday.

As a result, the Highlanders must cancel their next two games. They were scheduled to visit North Allegheny on Friday and host Canon-McMillan in Week 3.

The school learned about the unnamed coach’s positive test Thursday morning and “took immediate action to isolate the players on the team that were in school today as well as any teacher, staff member and other students that serve in any capacity for the team,” according to a statement from superintendent Randal Lutz.

Baldwin was on the other side of this scenario a week ago when Mt. Lebanon canceled their Week 1 game over covid-19 concerns. The Highlanders managed to schedule a nonconference game at Hollidaysburg. They won 27-7 in first-year coach Tim Sweeney’s debut.

But the cancellations will cause a serious disruption to the WPIAL’s Class 6A standings. With an eight-team conference and a seven-game regular season, there’s no flexibility to reschedule games that are skipped. When the regular season ends, some teams will have played more conference games than others.

So far, the four Class 6A games canceled were Seneca Valley at North Allegheny, Baldwin at Mt. Lebanon, Baldwin at North Allegheny and Canon-McMillon at Baldwin.

If there’s an unbalanced schedule, the WPIAL must determine how playoff teams are selected.

In the meantime, North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan are working to find nonconference opponents as replacements on short notice. Their best chance is a team whose would-be opponent also canceled, but that a long shot.

“I’m going to try,” Canon-McMillan athletic director Frank Vulcano said. “I put something out to the ADs, but unless they get in the same situation, no one’s probably going to call us.”

Vulcano still had a few days to search. North Allegheny athletic director Bob Bozzuto doesn’t have the benefit of time.

“We’ll see,” Bozzuto said. “It has to be good fit, too. You don’t want to put kids in a bad situation when you’re not prepared.”

This was the second time in two weeks that North Allegheny saw its game canceled. The Tigers scrambled in Week 1 when Seneca Valley canceled and scheduled Penn Hills instead.

“It’s tough to have to cancel on Thursday,” NA coach Art Walker said. “You put in the work all week … and then you have to tell the players we don’t have a game”

Also this week, West Greene was forced to postpone its Week 2 contest against California because of a covid-19 case at the school. The positive case was unrelated to West Greene’s football team, coach Brian Hanson said.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Baldwin, Canon-McMillan, North Allegheny