Telegraph photo by TOM KING One of the issues for Nashua North or South continuing with football is how to wear both a mask and a mouth guard under a helmet during competition, Nashua athletic director LIsa Gingras said Wednesday.

NASHUA – The Nashua High School South football game vs. Merrimack that was scheduled for Friday will not be played, Merrimack will now be at Salem and and Friday’s Nashua North game at Alvirne, which initially got a go-ahead for Friday at 5 p.m. has now been cancelled at Alvirne’s request.

However, today’s North games in soccer and volleyball with Alvirne are now on as originally scheduled.

“It was our decision to cancel football this week,” Broncos athletic director Karen Bonney said, adding the reasons why would have to come from Hudson Superintendent of Schools Larry Russell, who apparently made the final call.

Wednesday had a whirlwind of COVID-19 local high school sports related developments, beginning with a meeting between Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras and local health officials, as well as Pinkerton Academy shutting down its fall sports season.

Following her meeting, Gingras said that she is now waiting for health officials to give her a formal list of protocols and guidance for the remainder the fall, the main ingredient expected to be all athletes must wear masks during competition. That was expected to come, she said yesterday, within 24 to 48 hours, which would have brought Friday’s North-Alvirne game down to the wire.

All this has happened – with Nashua, Merrimack and Alvirne, that is – after Nashua cancelled games earlier this week due to the fact the Department of Health and Community Services wanted to be sure that no student athletes were impacted by the recent outbreak at a local church.

Here are the developments:

— Instead of playing South in football on Friday, Merrimack will now play at Salem at 7 p.m. That opportunity came about since Salem suddenly had an opening with Pinkerton’s move. Tomahawks AD Mike Soucy said he had to grab that chance as Nashua had no definitive answer and his team hadn’t played in three weeks due to its own quarantine earlier this month. Ironically, one of those games cancelled during that stretch was Salem.

“I said to Mike, ‘If you can get a guaranteed game, that’s what you need to do for your kids,” Gingras said. “I feel horrible for our kids that they’re losing an opportunity, but at this point in time we’ve got to go with the health experts and what’s safe for our community.”

“We’re all trying to piece things together and do the best we can for our athletes,” Soucy said.

—- South and Merrimack will, however, play girls volleyball as was scheduled on Friday. Helping that take place is the fact both teams wear masks when playing, anyway.

— Gingras said she added a North-South varsity field hockey game today at 3:30 p.m. All players will be masked.

— Saturday’s South events with Merrimack (boys and girl soccer) are still on hold as much as for the weather forecast as for pandemic reasons, although it it supposed to clear after a rainy morning according to the latest forecast.

Meanwhile, Gingras will wait for health officials to make everything, well, official.

“They are going to send recommendations in the next day or to on their requirements for us to continue competition,” Gingras said. “That being said, we are allowed to resume competition as long as everyone in competiton wears masks at all times.”

—- Gingras said late yesterday she still needed to discuss the other scheduled games with Alvirne athletic director Karen Bonney, which today were to include boys soccer in Hudson at 5:30, and girls volleyball in Hudson at 6:30, and girls soccer at Stellos at 7 p.m.. “Everything with Alvirne is on hold until I can talk to Karen Bonney,” said said yesterday, and apparently that conversation took place, so the games are on — except football..

But mainly, Gingras wants to get all the protocols she needs going forward, adding that health officials are working faster than usual because “we’re getting close to crunch time” especially with North-Alvirne football.

“I’m waiting on the final recommendations from the Board of Health on what we do and do not do wearing masks during competition as well as whether we can resume play with all communities

“Obviously the mask thing comes into play with football, because how do you wear a mask with a mouth guard?”

Field hockey use mouth guards, but the mouth guards don’t have straps on them or are attached to a helmet, as they are in football. This year mouth guards aren’t mandatory in soccer.

The discussions about football were mixed, Gingras said. On one hand, health officials talked about the importance of masks, and on the other, “‘for these reasons we can see why you can’t wear a mask under a football helmet’,” Gingras said. “That’s why they needed to take their time, step back and collect their thoughts and write their recommendation.”

Is Gingras afraid football can’t be played the rest of the year? No, she said.

“I’m not afraid of that,” she said. “If they come back and say that masks are absolutely mandatory, we’ve just got to figure out a way to make that happen.”

As always, stay tuned.

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As for Pinkerton, they have had an outbreak plus an individual who was supposed to be quarantined and showed up at the school. The school is going all remote until things can be re-assessed in November.

“Unfortunately, due to the number of students quarantined and the expectation that more positive cases will result from these exposures, at this time we are ending participation in fall sports,” Pinkerton headmaster Tim Powers said Wednesday in a very detailed message on the school’s Facebook page.

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