OGDEN, Utah — An abrupt end to the Fremont High School varsity football season has left seniors stunned.
A COVID-19 outbreak forced the team to forfeit Friday's second round game of the state playoffs against Copper Hills.
At least three players became sick and made the entire team quarantine for two weeks.
Uintah High School forced to forfeit playoff game due to COVID-19
Jaxson McFarland, Trapper Behm, Cord Cypers, Jackson Skidmore have played football together since they were kids.
"The was the season I have looked forward to since I was playing rec football at West Haven,” said McFarland.
On Monday, they ended their last season in quarantine.
"It was awful, man. Everyone was just in grief,” said Behm.
"It just hit so fast, you didn’t really have time to process it,” said Skidmore.
The varsity team was in the locker room Monday afternoon, gearing up for practice ahead of the second round of the state playoffs when they got an email.
The season was over immediately.
"I was pretty sad about it, just like every senior was,” said Behm.
Roughly two dozen seniors played varsity football at Fremont.
"Just to know that I looked forward for this moment in my life and it just gets taken away. It’s just hard,” said McFarland.
The four players feel like they were robbed of their last home game of the year, which was scheduled for October 23.
"It would have been nice to know that last Wednesday was the last time we’d take off our helmet and put on our pads and stuff like that. I feel like we would have felt about that game differently,” said Cypers.
The players insist the coaching staff did their best to control COVID-19.
“You always had this feeling like you never knew the season could end tomorrow because of getting shut down because there were so many rules,” said Behm.
"It would have given us closure to know that this is our last practice. This is our last game. This is the last time I’ll ever walk off the field,” said McFarland.
Some Fremont seniors are currently in talks with college coaches but because of COVID-19, fear they don’t have enough footage to stand out for scholarships.