Telegraph file photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin All-State varsity field hockey player Brooke Yabroudy and the rest of her teammates will have their season delayed until Oct. 3 as a precaution after two students at the school tested positive for COVID-19 this past week.

Bishop Guertin High School principal Jason Strniste said Sunday that after two students of the school have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week, the Cardinals varsity field hockey team will shift to remote learning and not practice until the week of Sept. 27.

The move is being made due to possible exposure and “out of an abundance of caution,” Strniste said.

All other fall sports teams at the school, he said, will be able to play their scheduled games this week and hold their practices as planned, saying there is “no indication” that their safety measures have revealed any other possible exposure related to the school’s sports programs other than field hockey. The Cardinals boys and girls varsity soccer teams are set to open their season Monday (today) vs. Merrimack. The varsity golf team has been playing since last week, although

The school on its website’s COVID-19 Page last week announced that it was notified of first positive test result, and then a second later in the week which was related to the first. It said that “any additional students who may have been exposed in school have already been contacted, and will shift to remote learning for 14 days.

“Additionally, one varsity team will shift to remote learning out of an abundance of caution.”

Telegraph file photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin's Lindsay Hult (17), shown celebrating a tournament win last year, and the rest of her Cardinal varsity field hockey teammates will have their season delayed until Oct. 3 as a precaution after two students at the school tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

“We just said we’re going to be extra cautious,” Strniste told The Telegraph on Sunday,indicating field hockey is that varsity team.

The school, Strniste said, is working with the Nashua Department of Public Health and Community Service. The second exposure, according to the BG website, “likely occurred outside of school.”

The statement on the school’s COVID-19 web page further said with regard to the second positive test, “Based on input from public health officials, because this case is directly linked to the existing case, and because the transmission likely occurred outside of school, this additional case likely does not reflect a substantial risk to the school community beyond yesterday’s case.

“We will continue to closely monitor any incidents and will share information as appropriate. However, we are still within the boundaries of ‘low impact’ to the overall risk profile of the school.”

As for field hockey, the Cardinals were scheduled to open their already abbreviated season (just eight games originally scheduled) Tuesday vs. Merrimack at home and then play the Tomahawks on the road on Thursday. Those games are cancelled and won’t be rescheduled.

Guertin’s next game would have been Sept. 28 at home vs. Manchester Central, but that, too, has been cancelled. Barring any further setbacks, the Cardinals will open a five game season on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Bedford.

Schools all over the state are playing short seasons that began this past weekend or this week, with most if not all tournaments being open.

“It’s totally out of an abundance of caution,” Guertin first-year varsity head coach Erica Chareth said of the quarantine. “We don’t want to risk anything at our school or risk exposure for any team we play.”

Thus, Chareth said, beginning sometime the week of Sept. 27, “We’ll take the time to practice.”

“Early in the week of the 27th they’ll be able to start doing things as a team,” Strniste said.

Guertin has had in-school learning since it began school nearly a month ago, with some remote learning as well, but Strniste, in a recorded message on the web site, said that the school would use one of its “professional development days” Monday for no school. Students are expected back in the classroom on Tuesday.

“The day off Monday is due to a lot of things,” Strniste said Sunday, and his recorded message states some of those, including giving teachers a day off from balancing classroom work with remote learning.

Strniste said that he certainly expects other cases and issues to arise in the coming weeks, given the nature of the virus.

“We’ve been telling our students and faculty that they should expect a very disruptive fall,” he said. “Things are going to be that disruptive.”

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