The Hamilton Heights football team will have a new opponent for its first game of the season.
The Huskies will host Muncie Central to open the 2020 season, with kickoff at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Heights stadium. The game will also function as the Senior Night contest for the Huskies players and cheerleaders.
Heights was originally supposed to play Monroe Central on Aug. 21 for its season opener. But on Monday evening, Monroe Central Golden Bears’ Twitter account announced that the game was canceled. Monroe Central’s Week 2 game against Tindley was also canceled. The Golden Bears also had a cross country invitational scheduled for Aug. 22, but that has been canceled as well.
Heights athletic director Kurt Ogden told the Reporter that Monroe Central’s athletic director said he is tasked with finding games that fit into their health department’s and school corporation’s model of “limiting risk,” as schools try to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. The likely concern was transporting students out of the county, and bringing in students and spectators to the school.
The Huskies began a search for a new Week 1 opponent immediately, and that quickly came to fruition. Ogden announced that Muncie Central was on board to play Heights Tuesday afternoon.
Several other early-season football games have been canceled due to the effects of the pandemic. Carmel’s Week 1 game with Louisville Trinity was one of them; the Kentucky High School Athletic Association shifted the dates of fall sports, thus forcing the game to be called off.
On Tuesday, a high-profile game was canceled: Center Grove-Warren Central, a big Metropolitan Conference contest that is the traditional start of the season for both teams. The Warriors had a football player test positive for COVID-19 last week. Ryan O’Leary, the sports editor of the Daily Journal in Franklin, reported that the decision was made because of the number of Warren players and coaches currently in quarantine. Center Grove is trying to find a replacement game.
