The Charlotte News & Observer reported on October 3 that the Junior Hurricanes USPHL Premier and Elite Teams traveled to Marietta, played the Atlanta Mad Hatters, and dozens of players from both teams tested positive for COVID-19 shortly thereafter. The series took place at Atlanta Ice House in Marietta, approximately 24 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta.
The sequence of events that led to this large outbreak are well documented by sports columnist Luke DeCock. In summary:
- “Several players and staff {from the Junior Hurricanes} tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the trip and were left at home”
- “players and staff who tested negative were allowed to travel and play”
- after the series ended, “more players on the Junior Hurricanes teams tested positive” along with “at least 19 of their opponents with the Atlanta Mad Hatters”
RinkAtlas initially held off on reporting about this story, because it’s difficult to determine exactly how much either team knew about the apparent outbreak before the first game in Marietta that took place on Saturday, September 26.
However, in retrospect, it seems clear that the Junior Hurricanes management was aware that several people had tested positive for COVID-19 before they left on the road trip. In situations like this, an assessment needs to be made of close contacts to the people who had already tested positive, and those people need to be quarantined immediately.
What happened instead was the USPHL Testing Policy was followed, which “Require all players and team personnel to take a COVID-19 rapid test within 24 hours of departing on any overnight trip in which the team will be traveling within team bus/vans.”
The difference between quarantining close contacts and only quarantining people who test positive by a COVID-19 rapid test is significant, and that is likely to be the reason for most or all of the infections in the aftermath of the initial COVID-19 infections on the Junior Hurricanes.
RinkAtlas Arena Directory Updates
- Atlanta Ice House is added as the 4,691st arena in the RinkAtlas Arena Directory. We believe that it is the 11th arena where ice hockey can be played in the State of Georgia, although a few of the arenas we list are large sports arenas, so the true number is likely to be somewhat smaller.