DES MOINES, Iowa — The Dowling baseball team has been eyeing a trip to the postseason, but after learning of possible exposure to coronavirus in the program, their dream season is on hold.
Last week, the Maroons were set to face Johnston, a match up between the top two teams in 4A. The game was cancelled after Dowling had learned of possible exposure to coronavirus.
"What we were getting were several reports of exposures and people getting tested within our community and that started slipping into our baseball program," Dowling's athletic director, Tom Wilson said.
Wilson learned of one player and a coach with a possible exposure and had to move swiftly in cancelling their games while they conduct contact tracing.
"Baseball and softball are generally around the same people most of the time so that becomes easy," Wilson said. "I feel good about our protocol, but yet, when you have a positive test you certainly have to trace things back and make sure you're doing the right thing. I felt i needed results of their testing before we can move forward."
The players test results were negative, but in order for the Maroons to take the field again this year, Wilson says it'll depend on the tests results from the coach who may have been exposed to the virus.
"We really need to see how far this goes. If that test is negative then are intentions are to move forward with the season. If it's positive then we have another problem. We have to get those results before we can make any decision's to play anybody."
While the season, which had been such a positive on the field, is now up the air for the Maroons, Wilson said this was the call that had to be made.
"We're trying to have a season and things be normal, but they're not normal," Wilson said. "Obviously we all want to get to the post season and see what we can do, but more importantly we want to minimize the spread as much as we can and we felt like this was the thing to do. So at the end of the day it wasn't a difficult decision to make. You certainly don't want to have to do that but at some point in time you have to do the right thing."
Wilson hopes to have the test results by Monday so that they can make future decisions from there.