Badger student tests positive for COVID-19: Gator Football players and coaches are in quarantine

The Gator Football team enters the field as one prior to its season opening game versus the Fertile-Beltrami Falcons in Fertile on October 9— a game the Gators lost by a 28-6 final.

The Badger School received word from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) that a member of the Badger School received a positive case of COVID-19 last weekend. The individual is a student-athlete, who participates on the Badger/Greenbush-Middle River Gator Football team.

As a result of this positive case, members of the Gator Football team, including players and coaches at both of the co-op schools and others who had recent close contact with this individual, have to quarantine as a safeguard for a specific period of time. Also of note, the team’s home opener versus the Northern Freeze on October 15 was cancelled.

According to a letter sent to Badger School District families, students, and staff members and posted on the school’s website, the exposure dates for this positive individual were October 8 and 9. The Gator Football team competed against the Fertile-Beltrami Falcons in Fertile on October 9— both teams’ season openers. Fertile-Beltrami was notified about the positive result.

At the October 12 Badger School Board meeting, Badger Superintendent-Principal Kevin Ricke said that the student-athlete went in on Saturday, October 10 to get checked after showing to be symptomatic.

Ricke said the district had to call it in to and work with Roseau County Public Health and the state. They then started helping the district with tracing. Ricke said during the meeting that the positive confirmed individual’s family was called to work on retracing his steps. According to the letter, the district worked with the MDH to identify those who had close contact with this confirmed individual and have communicated with these individuals via email or phone.
Close contact is defined as being less than 6 feet away from the positive confirmed person for 15 consecutive minutes or more.

As a result of this positive case, approximately 24 Badger students, including Gator Football players and others who may had close contact with the positive individual two days prior to his case being confirmed, will quarantine and participate in distance learning from October 12 to October 23. Five Gator coaches, a majority of them school staff members, also will be quarantining during this period as a safeguard.

Anyone who rode the game bus automatically had to quarantine. As for GMR, according to Ricke, 14 of their varsity level players were on the bus— a number confirmed by GMR Superintendent Larry Guggisberg.

“I’m guessing, this is our first,” Ricke said, (but) it’s not going to be our last (positive case).”