Greenfield HS pauses varsity football 'out of an abundance of caution'

GREENFIELD, Wis. - Friday night lights -- not happening at several local high schools tonight. 

COVID-19 pausing some teams' season already this spring. 

The silence at the Greenfield High School football field is a loud emptiness.

"Everybody is kind of sad today," Ruben Salinas said.

Friday's varsity football game, and activities through Monday — canceled. 

"It hurts seeing everyone being able to play and then we get stuck over this situation for one, we can’t control and two, nobody even has it," Jackson Compton said.

According to the Greenfield Health Department -- multiple people on the Cudahy varsity football team tested positive for COVID-19 after Friday's game against Greenfield.

The health departments in Greenfield and Cudahy traced the cases back to the game as a potential source of exposure.

"As a result of those multiple cases in Cudahy there were multiple quarantines that needed to be put in place for the Greenfield team," Darren Rausch said.

That was the first game of the schools' football season- after it was postponed from the fall due to the pandemic.

But with several protocols in place for an already shortened season -- some teammates don't feel the decision is fair. 

"We really distance ourselves from the team for situations like this if they did have it COVID which they do, but we’re still closing our season down for a week," Jordan Esquivel said.

"It’s just really sad that it’s still happening even after all the precautions we took," John Plazek said.

While the team leans on each other Friday -- they hope other football programs will take covid-19 precautions seriously so everyone can play the sport they all love. 

"This is like our last time being together and actually playing together so it just kind of sucks," Esquivel said.

Football practice and activity are scheduled to return Tuesday. 

The players -- hoping today's game can be rescheduled to later in the season.