Two nights of boys’ FCHS athletic games postponed

The male part of the four-game set of JV and Varsity boys and girls and the formal dedication of the FCHS gym for legendary coach Alan Cantrell on Friday were postponed to an undetermined date.
Masks were too often missing at last weekend's Chance Harman Classic at Floyd County High School, where a sign on the door said masks are required to enter the building.i
JV Buffaloes basketball player Luca Gucciardo did wear a mask while playing, even though the athletes are not required to do so while playing and the rigors of activity shifted it from time to time.

Half of a scheduled set of four basketball games the Buffaloes and Lady Buffaloes (JV and Varsity) for Friday (Jan. 14) are postponed until a later date. No reason was given, but issues with COVID-19 have scuttled more than one set of plans for the school system in this near year. The ladies will play. They guys will not.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reports 18,198 new cases in The Old Dominion in Thursday’s daily report. That report shows 230 new cases in Montgomery County (181 in the county and 49 in Radford). Roanoke City has 474 new infections, Roanoke County reports 233 (with 99 more in Salem).

Floyd County’s 27 new cases put the County just 15 away from a total of 2,000. Carroll reports 73 (plus 25 in Galax), Franklin 102, and Patrick 72.

America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says most of us will, at some point, contract the infection. How our bodies handle it will be dependent on our levels of vaccinations and whether we use masks and other safety precautions.

Consider this: Those without the needed level of vaccinations are 20 times more likely than to die, which those fully vaccinated with the booster shots, are most likely to have minor symptoms.

“I think it’s hard to process what’s actually happening right now,” says Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, “which is most people are going to get covid.”

With more than 760,000 residents in America testing positive daily for COVID-19. More than 30 percent of this nation’s population has gotten COVID, and that percentage is rising dramatically each day.

Warns Fauci:

We really have to see how things spread out, when we see how that fares in the next variant. So there will be invariably another variant; we’re going to have to take a look at whether or not there’s going to be any protection there.

At the Chance Harman Classic last week: “Masks? We don’t need no stinking masks!”

At the Chance Harman Classic at Floyd County High School last Saturday, those entering the building were told that masks were required, but many adults and students ignored and paraded around bare-faced.

Ironically, Luca Gucciardo of the JV Buffaloes played with a mask, though the rigors of play often had it covering his chin as much as it did his mouth and nose. The Lady Buffs were scheduled to play Auburn in the Chance Harman Classic, but a positive test on one of the team’s coaching staff put them all in quarantine and the game was scrubbed.

This week, the girls are cleared to play against Patrick County at the FCHS gym Thursday (tonight) but the scheduled boys’ JV and Varsity were moved to Jan. 27. That suggests the latest COVID cancellations involved the guys this time and not the ladies.

See you at the game, but please wear a mask.

One wearing a mask (sort of) and another without, but she appeared to be eating.