COVID outbreak sidelines Hermiston football players and coaches

Members of Hermiston’s football team are being quarantined after four students contracted COVID-19.

The four teens are all members of the high school team, which has been having practices while the students remain taking their classes online, said Briana Cortaberria, the district’s communication officer.

The Umatilla County Health Department told school officials about the cases on Friday, and the district is reaching out to players and coaches who need to quarantine themselves.

“The health and safety of our students is our number one priority,” District Athletic Director Larry Usher said in a release Tuesday. “All Hermiston School District athletic and activity programs follow Oregon Health Authority guidelines.”

The school is part of the Mid-Columbia Conference along with the Tri-Cities high schools. Restrictions on travel between the states along with rules limiting football games has meant the teams have only been practicing.

While most of the conference teams will have a six-game schedule, Hermiston has been left out because it’s based in Oregon. Neither governor has given clearance for teams to travel across the state line.

Overall, students in Hermiston have been online for most of the year. The only exceptions have been a small number of students who needed more attention, said officials.

However, because of the dropping number of cases in Umatilla County, the school district plans to bring back kindergartners and first-graders for hybrid learning starting next week.

Since the start of the pandemic, Umatilla County has seen 7,384 cases and 76 deaths. For the 14-day period ending on Jan. 24 the county had a rate of 446 new cases per 100,000 people.

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 2:58 PM.