North High basketball has paused all basketball activities due to a positive COVID-19 case in the boys basketball program. The game against Heights that would have taken place tonight, has been postponed and will be made up at a later date.

In order to be completely safe, Athletic Director Tony Douglas called the girls games as well.

“We wanted to be proactive and to prevent any more close contacts or the domino effect if there would be any,” Douglas said. “It was the only day we could offer team testing for the boys and then also to allow everybody to reschedule for a whole night.”

Douglas spoke with Heights Athletic Director Mike Church and both agreed that it made sense to call off all the games instead of trying to piece games together with Varsity playing one day and JV playing another day.

“Both teams were going to take Friday off anyway. We can reschedule a game. We didn’t want to create more of an issue that was already there,”  Douglas said.

For girls coach Mike Bailey, it was tough to know his team wasn’t playing Friday night. The girls team have won two straight after wins against Newton and Northwest and Bailey wanted to keep riding the momentum.

“When a team has a good start such as we have, you want to keep it going,” Bailey said.

However, Bailey said he has been preparing his team for moments like this since the season began.

“I have talked our players since day one to be prepared for cancellations of games and maybe the season if it comes to that.  They have listened and have played hard each game and have been rewarded with the 3 wins,” Bailey said. “The two weeks off is not ideal, but our athletes are young and they will be ready for their next game against South on January 8^th.”