Hand, foot and mouth disease forces Pope John to forfeit Saturday’s football game
Sparta. An outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease in Pope John XXIII Regional High School’s football program led to the cancellation of all football games and an open house, as the school takes precautions to contain the spread.
Sparta /
| 17 Oct 2025 | 09:42
Pope John XXIII Regional High School varsity football team. (
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Pope John XXIII Regional High School football program and cheerleaders. (
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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.
An outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease within Sparta’s Pope John XXIII Regional High School football program caused the school to forfeit its Oct. 18 game at St. Joseph Regional High School.
“Things like this need to be taken seriously and we weren’t about to go down to St. Joe’s knowing how contagious hand, foot and mouth disease can be,” Pope John Director of Athletics Brian McAleer said last Friday evening. “This started Wednesday in the freshman program and as of right now I can tell you it is contained within the football program and maybe one cheerleader.”
To combat the spread, McAleer said the school fumigated locker rooms, wiped down all the lockers, disinfected “everything” and put out notifications telling anyone who is sick to stay home in an effort to protect the entire school community.
The freshman and junior varsity games also were canceled, as was an open house scheduled for last Sunday. Other sports programs continued as no one has displayed symptoms of the disease, McAleer said.
School President Dan O’Keefe said things were getting back to normal for the new school week.
“Practice is on for today and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we plan to finish out the season as normal,” O’Keefe said Monday, Oct. 20. “Otherwise, nothing to update. We plan to play St. Peter’s on Saturday at noon.”
