Forreston Holiday Tournament canceled again due to COVID-19 outbreak

Dec. 9—FORRESTON — Just one day after the 16-team bracket was released, the annual Forreston holiday boys basketball tournament was canceled when the high school went to remote learning following a COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Forreston athletic director Kyle Zick, there were 19 positive COVID-19 cases traced back to the high school, and they were looking at quarantining 105 students, which was more than 40% of the school's population. So instead, in conjunction with health department protocol, the school went into an adaptive pause expected to last from Dec. 7-17.

"This is not what we wanted to have to do, but we just have to keep the kids safe," Zick, the seventh-year AD at Forreston, said. "It's not a decision you take lightly, but we'll hope to get things going again on the 17th.

"It is tough to cancel this tournament again, though."

This was supposed to be the 61st Forreston Holiday Tournament, which puts it at the second-longest-running tourney in the state. Last year's was canceled due to COVID-19 as well.

The 16-team field would have included Forreston and five other local teams out of the NUIC (Aquin, Dakota, Lena-Winslow, Stockton, Pecatonica), as well as three from the Big Northern Conference (Oregon, Byron and Winnebago).

Jay Taft: jtaft@rrstar.com; @JayTaft

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