At least 9 Cal Poly, Cuesta College student athletes test positive for COVID-19
Several athletes on Cal Poly and Cuesta College sports teams have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past week, according to public health and school officials.
At least four Cal Poly football players have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a source at the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department.
In addition, five members of Cuesta College’s baseball team have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Ritchie Bermudez, the community college’s associate director of marketing and communications.
The Cougars baseball team has suspended all in-person meetings until Nov. 18, Bermudez said, and players who tested positive for the virus were in isolation.
Additionally, two players on Cuesta College’s women’s water polo team were awaiting COVID-19 test results as of Monday, and the team’s in-person practices are suspended while they wait for those results, Bermudez said.
At Cal Poly, “a small number of student-athletes have tested positive this quarter,” Matt Lazier, the San Luis Obispo university’s director of media relations, wrote in an email to The Tribune.
He added that “privacy laws prevent the university from identifying which specific teams or team members might be affected.”
“We can tell you generally that we are working closely with Campus Health and Wellbeing and San Luis Obispo County Public Health, both to provide our affected students with all appropriate support and to identify possible exposures in order to slow the spread of the virus and maintain the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, and campus community overall,” Lazier wrote.
All Cal Poly players who have tested positive for coronavirus were in isolation as of Monday, Matt Lazier, the San Luis Obispo university’s director of media relations.
Players who have not tested positive for COVID-19 or been in contact with one of the positive cases on Cal Poly’s football team are still practicing, Mustangs head football coach Beau Baldwin said.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a bummer,” said Dawson Hurst, a second-year Cal Poly football player who tested positive for coronavirus on Nov. 6. “We were just now getting back into the rhythm of playing.”
Hurst and the rest of the Cal Poly Mustangs went back to in-person practice on Oct. 27, Baldwin said. Though some players are now isolating and cannot practice, Baldwin said the rest of the team is adjusting and doing what they can with modified practices due to COVID-19 precautions and guidelines.
“You have to keep your knees bent and make adjustments when needed,” Baldwin said. “We have to focus on what we can with the guys who are here, knowing that the others will get back and involved when they’re healthy.”
The Cal Poly football team wraps up fall practices the week before Thanksgiving, and is off until mid January, Baldwin said. The team then has its first game on Feb. 27 against Southern Utah University.
The positive cases involving Cal Poly and Cuesta College athletes come as San Luis Obispo County experiences a significant spike in COVID-19 cases, according to the county Public Health Department.
The county added 226 cases of the coronavirus over the weekend and Monday, according to the Public Health Department, including 127 cases involving patients between 18 and 29 years old.
Cal Poly accounted for 53 of the newest local cases over the weekend, and added 139 cases last week.
The university has increased testing for certain groups, including some Greek organizations and on-campus residents who violated the university’s COVID-19 guidelines and held unapproved gatherings, according to Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong.
That brings the university’s total case count since March up to 469, including six self-reported employee cases.
At Cuesta College, a total of about 25 students and two employees have reported to the community college as testing positive for COVID-19 since the start of the fall semester on Aug. 17, according to Bermudez. About 40% of those students were athletes, he said.
