After one of its team’s players was severely injured in a football game Friday night, school officials at Winside Public Schools have decided that they will forfeit this week’s game at Emerson-Hubbard.
Superintendent Mike Shoff told The Wayne Herald late Monday afternoon that school officials met Monday morning to discuss the situation, and while the decision was a difficult one for all involved, it is in the best interests of the school’s students to go ahead and forfeit Friday’s game at Emerson-Hubbard.
“Right now there is a lot of stuff to work through, and we hope that the healing can take place and people can see that football is still a good sport and not everybody gets hurt like that,” he said Monday afternoon. “We feel bad to do this on their homecoming, but right now it’s not in our best interests to (play) this week. Our kids’ safety has to come first.”
On Friday, Winside was playing at Randolph when junior Trey Meis was tackled on a pass play and hit his head on the ground, suffering a subdural hematoma. Meis was life-flighted to a Sioux City hospital and the game was declared completed with 8:55 to go in the second quarter and Randolph leading 36-0.
Meis is recovering from his injuries, and Shoff said his fellow students, teachers and the community are looking forward to his recovery and return to school.
As for the remaining games on Winside’s football schedule, with only about a dozen healthy players on the roster right now, Shoff said they will address each game on a week-to-week basis.
