Brick High School Football Ends Season Due To Coronavirus Case

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township High School football team's season has ended a week early after someone associated with the team tested positive for the coronavirus, a school district official confirmed Monday.

Susan McNamara, the district's director of planning, research and evaluation who has been coordinating the district's response to the pandemic, confirmed the shutdown, which was first reported by the Asbury Park Press.

"We just found out about (the positive test)," McNamara said, adding that the shutdown was "out of an abundance of caution."

She did not say whether the person was a player or a coach. Superintendent Thomas Farrell has said the district will not identify whether a student or a staff member was positive in any cases.

The district, which opened the school year on a hybrid schedule of two days a week of in-person instruction, has had a handful of coronavirus cases. While some classes were shifted to remote learning temporarily for quarantine, none of the cases have forced it to close any of its schools.

High school football teams have been playing an abbreviated eight-game season in New Jersey because of the coronavirus pandemic. Brick played Central Regional on Friday — a 13-7 victory for the Green Dragons. They were scheduled to play Raritan this coming Friday in the regionalized postseason format set up by the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association for this season, but that game has been scrapped. Brick finished the season with a record of 2-7.

Brick's schools had been scheduled to move to four days of in-person instruction starting Monday, but last week Superintendent Thomas Farrell postponed that move until Nov. 30 for the elementary schools. Middle and high school students are scheduled to move to four days a week in person after the winter break.

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Brick Patch on Facebook.