COVID-19 Map Update Cuts High School Football Games in 9 West Virginia Counties

This week’s West Virginia COVID-19 map is out, and the list of counties forced to put games on hold has grown.

Counties shown in red are not allowed to practice or participate in games for the week, while orange counties are allowed practice time but no games. Yellow and green counties are allowed to practice and play games with restrictions in place. When the new map was released Saturday evening, Kanawha, Putnam, Fayette, Wayne, Mingo, Logan, Mercer and Monroe counties were shown in orange, while Monongalia County is the state’s only red county

Kanawha, Fayette, Logan and Monroe county schools were also forced to sit out games last week after turning down Gov. Jim Justice’s offer to test individual teams before allowing them to play. Monongalia County games for Morgantown, University and Clay-Battelle high schools were called off with just hours before kickoff Friday when Monongalia County was deemed “red” and the governor ordered the games not be played.

Week 2 games in Logan and Monroe counties were already on hold while teams scrambled to get enough practices in so their players will be eligible. Lincoln High in Harrison County sat out Week 1 after a positive COVID-19 test by someone close to the team. The Cougars status for Week 2 in uncertain as of Saturday night.

The updated map wipes out 22 games from next week’s schedule, including five that were originally moved to next week from last week’s batch of postponements.

Rescheduled Week 1 games now also called off:

• Capital at South Charleston
• Winfield at Herbert Hoover
• St. Albans at Nitro
• Sissonville at Meadow Bridge
• Midland Trail at Oak Hill

Regularly scheduled Week 2 games now on hold:

• Parkersburg at Capital
• George Washington at Hurricane
• Spring Valley at Riverside
• Brooke at University
• Mingo Central at Point Pleasant
• Clay-Battelle at Valley Wetzel
• Cameron at Trinity
• South Charleston at St. Albans
• Herbert Hoover at Nitro
• Sissonville at Scott
• Buffalo at Montcalm
• Tolsia at Braxton County
• St. Marys at Wayne
• Princeton at Oak Hill
• Liberty Raleigh at Pikeview
• Greenbrier East at Poca
• Wheeling Central Catholic at Winfield
• Midland Trail at Meadow Bridge