The Arkadelphia-Nashville game scheduled for tonight at Scrapper Stadium in Nashville was canceled Thursday afternoon because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Arkadelphia Superintendent Karla Neathery told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that there are three positive cases of covid-19 at Arkadelphia High School. Neathery said at least one of those cases involves a football player in the Arkadelphia program.
"We've got to put our kids first, for their health and safety," Neathery said.
Arkadelphia announced Thursday that the school was switching to a virtual learning environment for the remainder of the week because of new covid-19 cases.
The Arkadelphia-Nashville game was to have been between two of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Super Six teams in Class 4A. Nashville (2-1) is No. 2 and Arkadelphia (3-0) is No. 3. Both teams are 3-0 entering 4A-7 Conference play.
When asked if this week's cancellation could affect Arkadelphia's Oct. 2 game against Joe T. Robinson, Neathery said she was uncertain.
With the Arkadelphia-Nashville cancellation, there have been 15 conference matchups affected by covid-19 this week.
Another game canceled Thursday was a 6A-East Conference matchup between Jonesboro and El Dorado. El Dorado made the decision to call off the game after having at least one player test positive for the virus as well as going through contact tracing in the program.