Syracuse Men’s & Women’s Lacrosse Cancel Fall Season Events Due To Mumps Outbreak.

Syracuse University announced on Friday evening that its men's and women's lacrosse teams will not participate in any upcoming fall season events for a minimum of three weeks, due to a mumps outbreak on campus. (Ed. Note: Here’s the Wikipedia entry for mumps.)

Friday’s announcement comes a week after the men’s team had to withdrawal from last weekend’s Deyhontsigwa'ehs The Creator's Game, Lacrosse Weekend after at least one member of the men's lacrosse team was confirmed to have mumps.

Reports of mumps at Syracuse started popping up roughly two weeks ago. One of the first reports I saw was from Syracuse.com which reported that two students were diagnosed with mumps back on September 21st. After the first reported cases were confirmed, Syracuse announced that students who had not submitted vaccination records to the university would be “excluded” from SU’s campus starting Monday, October 1st. Despite the exclusion order, the number of students with mumps continued to rise, and was up to 8 as of Friday evening, which includes members of the men’s and women’s teams as confirmed by today’s press release.

In today’s press release, Syracuse Director of Athletics John Wildhack stated that "Our student-athletes' safety, and the safety of all students, faculty and staff, remains our top priority. After continued discussions, and with great counsel from the state and county, we are confident this is the right call."

The release went on to say that the upcoming men’s lacrosse alumni game will continue but only with former student athletes.

The Syracuse University men's lacrosse alumni event scheduled for Saturday, October 14 at 1:15 pm at the Carrier Dome will feature one game involving former student-athletes. Tickets are $10 and will be available at Carrier Dome gates A, B and C. Parking is free in the West parking lots. The 2017-18 Orange men will not participate in the event. The Orange women's lacrosse team will not participate in fall play days at Penn State, Navy and Manhasset, N.Y.

This is obviously a tough situation for Syracuse officials and coaches, but the school definitely made the right call. Public safety is a must, and when the choice is between foregoing some fall season events or protecting students, faculty, and the general population from a larger outbreak, you have to go with the latter.

Unfortunately, this is actually the second outbreak of mumps involving Syracuse students in the last six months. Back in May there was a another outbreak of mumps at Syracuse, with five reported cases of mumps involving a West Genesee High School student and four Syracuse University students.

Syracuse University said in a letter to students, faculty and staff it has already contacted those individuals who may have come in close contact with affected students. SU said it requires students to show proof of vaccination, which means the vast majority of students and other campus members have already received the vaccine.

STAY SAFE OUT THERE, CHRISTOPHER!!!