Could H1N1 flu cancel the game?

Scott Kibby says H1N1 and its possible effects on local athletics is like snow.

“You know it's coming, but you don't know how bad the snowstorm will be,” the Cedar Rapids Jefferson athletics director said.

Although student-athletes fall in a high-risk age group for H1N1, no one can say how many might eventually be affected, how badly or when, and athletics programs are generally unsure how they will respond if it gets bad.

Unlike seasonal flu, H1N1, commonly called swine flu, is disproportionately affecting the young. Most flu in Iowa has been reported in 5- to 24-year-olds. It has reached the pandemic stage worldwide, with widespread cases in more than half of the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Flu already has hit athletics at all levels to varying degrees, with college football teams at Mississippi, Wisconsin and Duke being particularly hard hit.

“We've had our share of it, too,” said Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz. “We didn't publicize it.

“We had (trainer) Russ (Haynes) give a speech, we had hand cleaners, all that stuff we're supposed to do,” Ferentz said. “Sure enough, as soon as he gave the speech - it was like rain and getting your car washed; it brings the rain. Same thing here. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It made for an interesting (week).”

Flu prevention efforts in athletics, like elsewhere, focus on the three C's, as the Iowa Department of Public Health calls it: Cover your cough, clean your hands and contain germs by staying home when you're sick.

The CDC also advises a six-foot distance when communicating with another person.

What happens, though, in the event of a large flu outbreak?

Coe College athletics director John Chandler said campus policy there calls for students with H1N1 to be quarantined.

“It might be a little different as we get into the winter,” he said, “but I'm not really too concerned about it.”

Kibby, on the other hand, is. “The potential to spread (H1N1) among smaller groups of kids, like athletic teams, is so much greater,” he said.

The obvious hope is athletics contests won't have to be canceled or postponed, but no one knows.

“(News of H1N1) has been out there for a while,” Chandler said. “So people have been planning for a while. They'll react when it hits.”