Timberland football coach Craig Collins came close to running out of players.
As with other area high schools, Timberland's students have missed several days this fall with viral infections at unprecedented rates, but the team seemed to be hit especially hard. Collins held practice for a couple days with just 25 of 75 players, canceled practice for two days and thought about postponing his game at Fort Zumwalt North earlier this month.
After talking with athletics directors at both schools, "about whether we'd have enough players and health concerns, spreading it to Zumwalt North, we decided that it seemed to be everywhere and it just had to run its course," Collins said.
Collins normally takes 50 players for a road game, so he dressed freshman and sophomores as well as varsity players. With 49 relatively healthy players, Timberland beat North, 38-13, on Oct. 3.
"The coaching staff didn't get the flu," Collins said, "but after all this, we're pretty run down."
The second wave of H1N1, a strain of which causes swine flu, and other viral infections have yet to cause the panic of the first outbreak in the spring, when high school associations in Texas suspended spring sports and Alabama postponed state championships, but the effects of the viruses have been hard to dismiss. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that since April, there have been 95 confirmed pediatric 2009 H1N1 deaths, 46 since Aug. 30.
The numbers can be misleading. The test to verify H1N1 costs about $300, so many doctors don't use it, especially because treatment is the same as it would be for other flu viruses.
Outbreaks of the flu locally have been pronounced, though no one has been forced to forfeit a game. The Charleston R1 and Jefferson districts in Missouri closed for five days, but games in that period were rescheduled, according to Jefferson superintendent Tom Guenzler.
Elsewhere:
— Duchesne canceled a volleyball game against Washington because it didn't have enough healthy players. Washington athletics director Bill Deckelman said the game would be rescheduled.
— Pattonville canceled a junior varsity football game against Hazelwood Central because it couldn't field a team, and the band didn't perform at the varsity game between the teams. Athletics director Bob Hebrank missed a few days of work with pneumonia.
Other schools have seen the flu run through teams but have managed to come up with enough players to prevent rescheduling.
More often, though, schools have followed the example of Collins or Hazelwood West soccer coach Jason Sellers. He lost about a half-dozen players with flu-like symptoms but said, "We never came close to postponing. We can always call up players from the JV players, but the toughest thing is holding practice, not knowing who's sick, trying to prepare for a game without taking the risk of spreading it."
School officials emphasized the illnesses had spread throughout the student population, causing absentee rates near 20 percent. On a typical day, most schools average 6 percent to 8 percent absenteeism.
But gauging whether athletes are more susceptible to the flu than the general student population can be difficult, according to Dr. Jay Noffsinger, pediatric professor, specializing in sports medicine at St. Louis University.
On the one hand, increased physical activity can strengthen the immune system, "and high school and college athletes certainly fall into that category," he said.
On the other, Noffsinger noted particular variables that could make young athletes more susceptible to H1N1, as well as other flu strains and viral infections.
— Athletes who overdo training, particularly distance runners or athletes trying to lose or gain weight, put more strain on their immune systems.
— Athletes risk exposure by casually sharing water bottles, towels and weight room equipment where germs and viruses can spread easily.
— Athletes who insist on training even when they're sick.
"You also have to fight the athletes' mentality," Noffsinger said. "They don't want to take a day off because they don't want to let the team down. So, they'll be around teammates when they are significantly contagious. They don't think about that."
To combat the infections, coaches and athletics directors say the schools are following CDC guidelines: frequent hand-washing, coughing or sneezing into a sleeve and staying home.
"The kids use the heck out of the hand sanitizers," Hazelwood Central athletics director John Pukala said. "We're going through a mess of that stuff. Let's hope it does some good."
Pukala said Hazelwood Central had been lucky to avoid serious outbreaks, especially among the athletes. He said he worried though what would happen if a state-contending football or soccer team got hit with a flu outbreak during playoffs.
"You can't just play two football games back to back," Pukala said. "They need to be four or five days apart. That could be a problem."
Neither of the state high school associations has a solution.
"We have had a great deal of discussion on how we would proceed with state tournaments regarding H1N1 closings, whether it be one school, 10 schools or 100 schools," said Matt Troha, assistant executive director of the Illinois High School Association. "At this time, though, we have not made any formal decisions."
One option could be the approach taken by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Activities Association, which forces a team to forfeit games on days the school is closed.
Jason West of the Missouri State High School Activities Association said the group hoped to have a plan in place by the end of this week, which includes the third week of football district playoffs and sectional meets in cross country and volleyball.
"As of now, we don't have a formal plan," he said. "We're still in the discussion phase."
