ELIZABETH — Trinity Christian School Superintendent Michelle Stellato received a phone call Thursday morning she didn’t like.

John McKown, the new superintendent at Wirt County, decided not to allow travel to Morgantown on Thursday night for the Tigers’ season-opening football game against the Warriors.

“I myself and members of the board had concerns sending them up there,” McKown said while adding the final decision was made “out of an abundance of caution.”

He pointed out the continuing trend of Monongalia County on the COVID-19 state map. The county is currently orange and was yellow as of Saturday night.

However, by opting not to play the game the Tigers will be forced to forfeit, which they plan to appeal in hopes of it becoming a no-contest.

“If this was a Friday night game it would be a moot point,” McKown added of the county likely heading to red by Friday morning.

Bernie Dolan, the executive director of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, said the Tigers still would’ve been allowed to play if the game had been scheduled for Friday and Monongalia County indeed would’ve turned red as Wirt County administrators expected.

Thus, that’s the reason why Wirt County has to forfeit.

Dolan also noted he had received a phone call from a county in green who had concerns of going to play a football game in a yellow colored county on the COVID-19 map.

“I understand West Virginia University is most definitely skewing the numbers up,” continued McKown, who also has issues with how some of the data is handled.

“We should be using the most accurate and up to date data we can for the safety of our students. That’s my argument and that’s my complaint. We need to take a look at that protocol and maybe change that up a little bit.”

The decision isn’t one Wirt County head coach Jason Hickman is happy with.

“This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of,” Hickman said. “It’s WVU. That’s what caused the spike in the numbers. They were yellow on Saturday at 9 p.m., which tells you if you can play or not and they turned orange on Monday and continue to climb and probably will turn red. Our superintendent decided it would be best if we didn’t make the trip and put the kids into that situation and those numbers. We had a meeting and it was what do you think?

“I told him about the numbers and the media reports and it’s WVU. I don’t feel bad about sending our kids into this environment than I would anyone else on our schedule and the numbers are isolated on the WVU campus. It’s not in the community and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, I believe there are people in the county getting board members and the superintendent, just talking about the numbers in general and not the actual facts and the superintendent is getting pressure from board members and others.”

Hickman scheduled a team meeting shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday for his players.

“We are all ticked. Our whole football team is ready to go, everyone, every coach, every member of this program is extremely upset about the decisions made over our heads,” said the coach.

“I understand where the superintendent is coming from, but people coming behind the scenes are stirring things up without facts. I’m very disappointed in that. We feel like as a program and from the staff to the school we are taking hits from the media.”

Although Hickman was adamant his team was not forfeiting the game, the current guidelines in place by the WVSSAC will have them starting at 0-1.

“It’s not a situation made by anyone who has anything to do with our program,” Hickman continued. “Our kids would go right now to go play. We are ready to go.

“We prepared all week and had great practices. We just had our rug pulled out from our feet and punched in the gut and our kids are the ones paying for it and it’s not fair to them.”

Trinity was expected to hold its senior night on Thursday against the orange and black, according to Dolan.

“Ultimately, the decision has to be mine. It fell with me. I got input from everybody,” McKown added.

“The big picture is one family getting sick shuts down my whole school system, not just sports. That is weighing on my decision making, too.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com