A day after the Arizona Interscholastic Association gave the green light for high school football competition to start in two weeks, Flagstaff Unified School District suddenly put a halt to fall sports.

The district sent a letter to the FUSD community Friday to let it know it is suspending athletic competition, after being notified by the Coconino County Health Department that the substantial community spread threshold was reached with 114.5 cases per 100,000 people.

A week ago, the district was at 50.5 per 100,000.

The new metric that the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee recommended to the AIA was 75/100,000 in order to compete in football.

“In this designation, no athletic competitions, meets, or tournaments may occur, but athletic practices can continue within the constraints of the specific sport modifications adopted by the AIA,” Bob Kuhn, assistant superintendent in the support services department, said in the letter. “All athletic competitions are on hold until further notice until public health data meets the standard of moderate community spread.

“FUSD will continue to monitor weekly public health data and provide updates as benchmarks are met for the return to play.”

If the community spread gets down to 75 of fewer in the next two weeks, Flagstaff and Coconino high schools will be able to start their football season on time Oct. 2.

Both schools were scheduled to start their volleyball season on Wednesday, but those matches are now on hold.

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