The Danville School girls basketball team has forfeited its chance at a VPA Division IV state title because of COVID-19 issues less than a week after similar concerns led Rivendell Academy’s girls to not visit Danville for a quarterfinal encounter.

In a Friday news release forwarded by the Vermont Principals Association, Danville principal David Schilling said he made the decision to withdraw his team on Thursday afternoon. The school became one of several that have surrendered championship game visits because of COVID complications this week.

While not finding fault with Danville, Rivendell athletic director Ross Convertino on Friday expressed frustration with what he felt was a rushed tournament process. He said Vermont schools would have been better off this winter using two extra weeks to play up to four additional games and pass on playoffs rather than attempting to determine champions with squads that had as few as two contests on their records before the postseason started.

“Where I think we dropped the ball from the top down was we made decisions that were not necessarily in the realm of being educational athletics and more in the realm of competitive or professional athletics, where it’s win or it’s the end of the deal,” Convertino said in a phone interview. “That’s where I’m most disappointed. It was an inability for us as a whole to provide a more positive experience with all that was going on.”

Danville’s issues began last weekend when it put off, for 24 hours, a Saturday quarterfinal with Rivendell to do contact tracing on two players considered close contacts to someone outside its program who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Danville received negative results for the pair by 7 p.m. on Saturday and rescheduled the game for Sunday, but Rivendell informed the Northeast Kingdom school about three hours later that it would instead forfeit the game.

“Obviously, we had to make a decision at the time; we went with what was in our best interest based on the information we were given, or the lack of information, on the situation,” Convertino said. “Of course, we’re very disappointed that it had to play out, especially given the successful year we were having. But here we are, without any close contacts, we’re healthy, and we ended up being in a situation where we had to choose safety or forfeit. It was a lose-lose situation for us.”

Danville went on to win Tuesday’s semifinal at top-ranked West Rutland, 44-22, to earn Saturday’s title date with No. 2 Proctor. The Phantoms were declared state champs as a result of Friday’s developments.

In a phone interview, VPA associate executive Bob Johnson said the Danville situation was emblematic of life with COVID. The association was already dealing with similar scenarios involving the Essex boys hockey and Burlington-Colchester girls hockey teams in championship settings when Danville came to a boil.

Essex gained clearance to play its D-I title game with BFA-St. Albans on Wednesday only after the entire team recorded negative tests in response to a COVID situation at the school. Burlington-Colchester forfeited the D-I girls crown to Essex on Wednesday, with both teams at the Barre BOR awaiting the start of their championship contest, because of a COVID case involving BHS-CHS.

The Rice Memorial girls also forfeited their Saturday D-I girls basketball finale on Friday due to COVID.

“All of these things are so fluid,” Johnson said. “I don’t think there’s any ulterior motive here. It’s one of those things we go through. Everyone gets clearance, and a day later someone’s not feeling well.”

In Friday’s news release, Schilling referenced the unpredictable nature of COVID discoveries and that decisions are made “based on the best information available at the time.”

“As any school leader, school nurse, athletic director or coach involved in this process can verify, our days are spent on the phone with the Vermont Department of Health, the Vermont Principals Association and our players and families, working through rapidly evolving circumstances and making split-second safety decisions,” he wrote. “These decisions have effects far beyond our town borders.”

Schilling also took exception to what he called “finger-pointing, assumptions and claims that ‘there must be more to this story’ ” on social media.

“I can tell you right now that nobody involved in this process has made a decision that has intentionally put anybody else’s child at risk,” Schilling wrote. “Sure, we all want nothing more than for our children to have some familiar shred of their lives back, but we’re following the rules. The timing is just not always on our side. COVID-19 is not known for its convenience and predictability.”

Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.