Reports of the cancellation of the Cedartown and Rockmart football seasons are untrue, but the games that were supposed to kick off the season back-to-back for the Corky Kell Classic are off for 2020.

Rockmart will still play Rome, and Cedartown will now travel to Carrollton to open the season on Sept. 4, according to a statement from the Polk School District Assistant Superintendent Greg Teems.

“We are receiving reports that Polk School District has canceled high school football season. This is not the case. Both Rockmart and Cedartown High School were scheduled to participate in theCorky Kell Classic, to be held at Barron Stadium in Rome,” his statement read. “Concerns were raised about having two high school games in the same night. Having teams from Cedartown, Rockmart, Carrollton and Rome, along with all of the participants (spectators, cheer and band) made disinfecting the stadium, locker rooms, restrooms and concessions a very difficult task between games. The Regional Director of Public Health advised not to have these games as originally planned. Based on that guidance, Corky Kell decided to move on from Rome and replaced the games for Friday night.”

Though the Corky Kell Classic games – set earlier in the year when other teams backed out of the games for the 2020 edition and Rockmart and Cedartown agreed to jump in – the plan is that Cedartown heads to Carrollton to open their season, and Rockmart stays in Rome. There is no official word yet on whether the two teams will get to play home games in 2021 against one another, but that is expected to be the result.

Following the opener, Cedartown and Rockmart face off in their annual rivalry game, and then the Jackets are set to head to Coahulla Creek, and the Bulldogs to Calhoun for opening dates of the 2020 schedule. That is based on current information as it stands.

“Polk School District is looking forward to seeing our participants take the field this season. We are continually monitoring and assessing the Coronavirus Guidance and will update our plans as needed. The Georgia High School Association is working diligently to provide its member schools the protocols needed. Per GHSA guidelines, Polk School District includes the Department of Health and local health professionals as we move forward,” the statement ended.

Teams are back to normal practice sessions this week, and were allowed locker room access per updates in the guidelines from the GHSA in recent days.