Fullerton College will not play the 98th Key To the County game this Saturday against Santa Ana College.
A Covid-19 outbreak hit Santa Ana College in August, forcing them to shut down for two weeks.
From August 10-August 24, Santa Ana could not practice and could only meet through online Zoom meetings.
Once the team was allowed to return to practice, there was a three-day acclimation period for the players with their helmets for safety issues.
This caused Santa Ana to push back their scrimmage with Long Beach, originally scheduled for Aug. 27.
Last week, Santa Ana Coach Anthony White announced that the team would not be ready for the September 4 week one opener against Fullerton College.
Coach White was hopeful the game could be rescheduled to Nov. 20.
According to the California Community College Athletic Association, if a game is not played during the first half of the season and cannot be rescheduled during the first half, the game cannot be rescheduled for the second half of the season because those weeks are reserved for games that may be canceled later on.
This means that Santa Ana faced the decision of playing or forfeiting the game.
Coach White and his staff decided to forfeit the game and take the loss rather than put his players on the field unprepared.
Fullerton College Coach Garret Campbell was frustrated by this, saying, “It’s a shame to not play when these young men- for both teams- have been through so much in the past 18 months.”
Coach Campbell even took to Twitter to offer to play Santa Ana in a scrimmage instead of a game so that his players could get some practice with another team.
Coach White declined the offer saying, ” We want to play! Why would we scrimmage when we can play a game November 20?”
Coach Campbell was then asked if Fullerton College had any plans of rescheduling the week one game to November 20.
“There is no game scheduled for that date. That date is reserved for games that need to be rescheduled in the second half of the season. That’s why the CCCAA passed the legislation-because rescheduling games in second half of the season is priority.” said Coach Garret Campbell.
Coach Campbell and the Hornets are understandably anxious to get back on the field for some competition after a long hiatus due to Covid-19 shutting down the entire 2020 season.
Fullerton (1-0), travels to Cerritos College next Saturday, Sept. 11, at 6 p.m.