Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South's Jason Compoh draws a crowd of Alvirne Broncos, including Kyle Ferullo (23), Drew Chamberlin (55), Alex Linke (53) and Brendan Graham (84) during last Friday's game. Alvirne cancelled its game with Nashua North due to virus concerns, and South won't play tonight as well after Merrimack rescheduled with Salem.

NASHUA – Things change by the day, the hour, the minute.

That’s what high school administrators, coaches, and players are discovering over and over, including this week, as they try to navigate through a COVID-19 fall season.

For example, it seemed as though Nashua High School North and Alvirne were all set Thursday, with all the proper clearance, to play football tonight in Hudson after a week of uncertainty. In fact, the game was moved to 5 p.m. from an original 7 p.m. start so as to lessen the blow of expected inclement weather.

Guess again. A little while later, early Thursday afternoon, Hudson Superintendent of Schools Larry Russell ordered the game cancelled due to virus concerns on the Alvirne end.

“Some students may have been exposed to a COVID positive individual,” Russell said. “There’s no direct – this is absolutely an abundance of caution we’re doing this through.”

Thus, it was a fateful twist after it was Nashua that was waiting to get proper guidance from local health officials in the wake of a recent outbreak at a local church.

Russell was asked if the risk was relegated to just football. “I can’t give any information like that that would specify a person or identify anybody,” Russell said. “I can’t have anybody publicized.”

However, Russell did say there was no concern for any of the other games between Alvirne and North that took place on Thursday (soccer, volleyball), so it had to be a football issue.

Thus both Nashua For North, it’s the second game they will have missed, and South is also idle tonight. The Panthers could have played Merrimack but with the uncertainty, the Tomahawks quickly grabbed a game tonight at Salem after the Blue Devils originally scheduled opponent for tonight, Pinkerton, had to shut down its fall season Wednesday.

It’s been a tough week for all involved, as Nashua South’s events with Merrimack the first half of this week were cancelled.

“Exactly,” Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said. “I feel bad for our kids. It’s been that roller coaster of everything going on between the masks and can we play and the investigations (related to the church outbreak). The highs and the lows and then the bottom to just drop out of it.

“I feel for our kids. Our coaches and our kids are resilient. We’re going to come back and hopefully play again next Friday.”

On the plus side, Merrimack and South will play girls volleyball on Friday, and the two schools will have a soccer doubleheader at Merrimack on Saturday, with the girls game at 2 p.m. and the boys at 4 p.m.

Gingras did receive the recommendations she needed from local health officials, allowing things to go forward.

“They recommend and encourage that masks be worn at all times,” Gingras said, “but understand that students in play are physically exerting themselves, so masks can be removed as needed.

“With football it will be more difficult (to wear a mask while playing) because wearing your mouth guard and helmet, you’re physically exerting. But on the sidelines, 100 percent required. Coaches required, spectators required, staff required, all of those things.

“It’s been a very stressful and roller coaster week. I’m disappointed for our kids, but ultimately we’re all just doing all we can do to keep people safe.”

Looking ahead to next week, Alvirne is scheduled to play Merrimack in most sports, including football. Broncos AD Karen Bonney said as of now everything is on, but deferred all final decisions to Russell,who stressed caution.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Russell said. “That’s everything anyway. We do every activity item by item to make sure everything is good. If we’re going to another town, we want them to be safe, and we want them to be safe with us.”

South plays Bishop Guertin in most sports next week while North partners up with Londonderry. In any event, Nashua athletics seems to have navigated through things and avoided a health crisis.

“We’re hoping for the same outcome with us, too,” Russell said.