SAUCON VALLEY SUSPENDS WRESTLING

The Saucon Valley School District has suspended its wrestling program until Thursday after a handful of the district's wrestlers contacted various contagious skin infections that they could pass to one another through skin contact.

The district decided to declare a stoppage to prevent wrestlers from passing back the infections or spreading them to other wrestlers, district Superintendent Sandra Fellin said.

The district has about 50 wrestlers on the high school and middle school teams. District Athletic Director Bob Frey said that less than 10 percent of the wrestlers were affected.

The conditions being diagnosed were typical wrestling skin-to-skin contact issues, including ring worm, mat herpes, impetigo and scabies, Fellin said.

The incubation period is three to five days so students were being cleared but others may not have had symptoms to yet be diagnosed, she said.

"It is proactive and preventative for the health of all students," Fellin said. "It would be my hope that all wrestling teams would follow the same process if they had the same concerns."

The teams had to pull out of a tournament and postpone several meets, Frey said.

"It was a tough decision," Frey said. "But in the long run it is in the best interest of our kids and not only our kids, the kids in surrounding communities."

The program and district wrestling facilities have been shut down since last Thursday as a precautionary measure, Frey said. Doctors don't believe the issues stem from anything on the mats but as a precaution the district is taking them apart and cleaning them, he said.

"We are taking every precaution, recommendation and suggestion we can," Frey said.

The issues have been ongoing for about two weeks and a little more than a week ago the district brought in the team doctor to check every wrestler over three consecutive days.

Express Times