Caroline Wight deserves a sash and a badge. The American Falls High teacher, who’s been overseeing the English language learners in the small eastern Idaho farming community for 16 years, rarely spends passing period behind her desk.

Often, her head peeks out the door and her eagle eye begins scouring, searching the busy halls for students without their masks. For a while, there were only a lucky few who caught some words from Wight if, perhaps, their mask dangled from one ear or slipped below their nostrils.

American Falls School District didn’t implement a mask mandate for its students at the onset of the school year. Regardless, Wight made it known to the members of the Beavers boys soccer team -- of which she is an assistant coach -- that wearing masks was not optional.

“We told the boys, even before the season, they needed to wear masks anytime they weren’t playing,” Wight said. “We just kept trying to reframe it. That it’s not about them … We tried to build pride that we were taking care of each other.”

Or, rather, each other’s families. A large sum of the American Falls boys soccer team -- and, really, the school as a whole -- lives with grandparents and, to a lesser extent, parents with underlying health conditions. Asthma. Diabetes. Weakened immune systems from all the hours spent around farms.

Worst of all, head coach Miguel Mata’s father, Candelario, is in the midst of a three-year battle against multiple myeloma cancer. Even before COVID-19 struck, Candelario was at risk of dying if a virus or illness made its way into his system.

Miguel Mata -- who lives with his dad and brother, Jose, who is also an A.F. assistant coach -- never tried to downplay the declining health of his father. It was something he made known to his players. Some days, he would need to miss practice to care for his dad. Other times, he’d be bedside at the hospital while Jose or Wight coached a game. They all understood.

And, so, despite the debate about masks or classmates who didn’t take the virus seriously or opposing teams and fans that were borderline reckless pre- and post-game, the Beavers didn’t need much convincing to be cautious.

“Yeah, we did it for our parents, but Miguel, he is such a good dude and means so much to us,” said junior midfielder Victor Palacios. “If it was our fault getting his parents sick or something, it would be the worst feeling ever.”

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Weeks later, the frustration still simmers inside a majority of the American Falls’ roster. This wasn’t supposed to happen to them. Not the team that wore masks, that socially distanced, that took more precautions to not get COVID than anyone else at the school.

“They were kind of like the outcasts of the school -- not outcasts -- but when there’s only about 15 to 20 people wearing masks,” said American Falls Superintendent Randy Jensen, “you know some people would be like, ‘Why are you guys wearing masks? We don’t have to wear them yet.'”

So far, the boys soccer team has been the only team in the American Falls School District impacted by COVID. It’s a cruel twist of fate that perhaps the most cautious squad in the district was the one to miss games because of positive tests.

And it took a whole three days for trouble to arise.

American Falls began its annual grueling preseason conditioning week, referred to as ‘hell week,’ on Monday, August 3. That Wednesday, senior Adolfo Alvarez woke up feeling sick. His grandma monitored his temperature, driving him to a nearby clinic as his temperature continued to rise. A few days later, his COVID-19 test came back positive.

“I was like kind of mad that I couldn’t keep conditioning and be there with my team, but it was like, safety first,” Alvarez said.

Luckily, Mata and Wight had taken precautions. For ‘hell week,’ they broke the team up into pods of four, small clusters that would train together. So when Alvarez tested positive, only three teammates needed to quarantine.

Later in the season, it wasn’t that easy.

Edgar Soltero began feeling headaches as the Beavers took on Marsh Valley in early September. He just figured they stemmed from all the screaming he was doing on the bench. The next day was picture day. Soltero woke up feeling like getting out of bed was impossible. He texted his coach he wasn’t going to be at picture day and got tested.

“When it came back positive, it was really devastating,” Soltero said. “I really did everything in my power to prevent getting it and to prevent my team from getting quarantined. I feel like it was my fault that my team had to quarantine.”

The Friday after the Marsh Valley game, Palacios showed up at school with a headache. As the Beavers' practice ended that afternoon, the headache turned to a fever, and then to a loss of smell and taste and an indication something was wrong. He called his mom and the pair drove to the hospital for a COVID test.

The positive result came in on Tuesday -- just prior to American Falls' game at Century. That contest was played as scheduled, but the Beavers would miss their next three games as the team quarantined.

“I think 14 of us got tested,” Wight said. “We told the boys, ‘OK, we have a 14-day quarantine, but if you go get tested and come back negative, we can come back sooner.’ Myself and 13 boys got tested and we all came back negative.

“One of the kids who was sick, I had sat next to him on the bench. But we had all been so careful about wearing masks that it didn’t spread any further.”

Others took drastic measures to ensure the virus didn’t spread.

In August, sophomore Marco Ponce’s uncle, whom he was living with, contracted the virus, forcing him to move in with his mom for two weeks. Two months later, senior left back Rafa Villa's mom came down with the virus. For the next 14 days, he stayed with his brother in Pocatello, commuting a half-hour to school and practice every day.

“I just didn’t want to put my teammates or coaches in danger,” Villa said. “(As a captain), I would always tell my teammates to think about coach (Mata). Like if one of us had the virus, went to practice not knowing they have the virus and gives Coach the virus, then he doesn’t know he has the virus and gives it to his dad. We had to stay safe for Coach.”

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Recently, Robert Parker ran through the collateral repercussions of his girls basketball team having one positive COVID case.

The Pocatello High athletic director had to postpone four games, quarantining the whole team because they practiced without masks. His girls will be playing three games a week for practically the rest of the season. As Parker remembered, he touched on how ADs around the state are preparing to be flexible, how calendar dates are running out and how he may have to just cancel games if this occurs again.

“Man,” I said, “I just hope we can finish the season.”

“I hope we can start it,” he said with a laugh.

Even the beginning of the basketball seasons, though, will take place in a dystopian land. After Idaho Governor Brad Little pushed the state back to Stage 2 COVID protocols last week -- which meant no gatherings of more than 10 people -- the dawn of high school basketball in the Gem State will go on with no fans in the stands, no parents able to cheer on their kids in-person.

Weeks before that came to fruition, the mere thought of it brought out a cascade of emotions. While speaking about other topics a few weeks back, a pair of athletic directors changed the conversation to last March — when sports shut down and they had to tell some kids they played their last games without knowing it. When they had to tell parents there was nothing they could do. When they had to watch four-year careers end unprompted and uncelebrated.

The two men began crying in their offices.

To some, continuing to play high school sports as COVID cases reach record numbers is a moronic, fruitless endeavor that’s bound to infect hundreds across the state. Those on the inside -- the administrators, the athletic directors, the coaches -- feel like they owe it to the kids to keep trying to play, to roll with the punches until it’s impossible.

“We had some bumps. We had some situations occur where teams couldn’t play, and that’s really unfortunate,” Ty Jones, the Executive Director of the IHSAA, said of the fall sports season. “Our No. 1 goal right from the start was to hopefully allow kids to be able to participate safely in contests. For the most part, I think that our schools were able to do that.”

The American Falls boys soccer team did finish the season, but the Beavers' story is, perhaps, the perfect precursor to what’s to come this winter season.

Girls basketball has already begun throughout Idaho. Boys basketball and wrestling won’t be far behind. Three indoor sports during the holiday season will likely lead to the virus running through locker rooms across the state.

But, as American Falls learned, you can try all you want to alleviate positive cases — only to still be caught unprepared when those positive cases come.

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It was a Tuesday morning in early September when Jensen, the American Falls superintendent, learned a player on the boys soccer team had tested positive for COVID-19.

Because it occurred at the start of the season, American Falls had not dealt with a COVID outbreak amongst its teams, and did not yet have a protocol in place for what to do after a positive case.

Jensen began reaching out to local health officials for guidance on how he should proceed. He explained that the positive case had been away from the team for a few days while waiting for his test, but was still in close contact with many of the players prior to that. Can the team play against Century in the afternoon, Jensen asked?

That question was met with mixed answers from local health officials. The first contact, Jensen said, noted he spoke with a local epidemiologist, and said the boys were good to continue with the game.

Right around the start of the game, however, another local health official called back and said that they shouldn't play, Jensen claimed.

“My comment to her was, ‘Well, I want to follow your guideline, but when you watch the news tonight, you’ll see they’re playing. Don’t think I just ignored you, but they’re already playing. I can’t stop it now.’”

The Beavers eventually fell 2-1 at Century in a big-time non-conference matchup between state title contenders in 4A (Century) and 3A (A.F.).

Prior to the first whistle, Jensen said he called School District 25 Athletic Director Tonya Wilkes and left a voicemail. She also called back around kickoff, he said, and Jensen let her know a player, who had been away from the team for days, tested positive. The game continued on.

Century Athletic Director Mark Pixton said he didn’t hear about American Falls’ positive case until after the game, but his worry was subdued.

“It just wasn’t a concern because of our mask protocols,” Pixton said. “We just let parents know that there may have been a third-person exposure and to look for symptoms.”

After that game, American Falls’ team quarantined for 10 days. Neither American Falls’ nor Century’s boys soccer team reported a player or coach testing positive for COVID-19 the rest of the season.

“Although I was nervous, we were playing by the rules and we were being careful,” Wight said. “And we did exactly what we were told to do.”

Precedent, set forth by some of the decisions that were made out of fall outbreaks, are helping guide choices as three indoor sports start up. Because of COVID-related issues and cancellations, like those American Falls encountered, superintendents and athletic directors aren't heading into the winter session blind, as they were in September.

"We took a lot of that information and the winter sports committees applied as much of it as they could," Jones said. "There were some things as far as social distancing and the sanitation aspect, as well as what happens if ... there is a COVID-related cancellation."

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American Falls’ season concluded in an apt setting. The field was white. The Beavers’ cheeks were red. Their goosebumps were chiseled. Their minds were fluttered with the feelings of annoyance and perplexity.

Dragging their cleats through a few inches of snow in Post Falls, the Beavers fell 3-1 to McCall-Donnelly in the state tournament just a day after losing to Sun Valley Community School for what felt like the 15th-straight year. It wasn’t the desired or expected outcome for an A.F. team loaded with talent, a team that had just been victorious in their district tournament for the fourth time in five years after taking bronze in the state tournament the year before.

Wight always tries to put soccer success and failures in perspective for her team. Really, soccer was never her thing. She didn’t grow up playing the game, didn’t join a team later in life, didn’t even watch much of it on TV.

But she began following the American Falls soccer teams mainly because the English language learners in her class were on the teams. She cared more about the players than the actual game.

One of those former players was Miguel, who moved to American Falls from Mexico in 2012. When the Beavers’ head coaching gig was open in 2016, Miguel was a sophomore at ISU, a few years removed from setting a few state records as A.F.’s goalie. Wight convinced him to take the job, telling him that she’d handle all the paperwork and outside distractions. All he needed to do was coach.

This season, Miguel and Wight couldn’t just be coaches. They had to be part coaches, part counselors, part health experts, part crisis managers, bright lights that obscured the shame and fear their players -- the ones who wore masks and took precautions, yet were still hit hard by COVID -- felt.

“I told them, ‘Don’t be embarrassed. It is not something to be embarrassed by. We need to care about each other,’” Miguel Mata said. “I think the boys did a really good job supporting those who had COVID … I mean, it can happen to anyone.”

Added Ponce: “Honestly, for me, this season was the most stressful season I’ve ever been a part of. But, for sure, one of the best seasons I’ve been a part of. We grew together and fought together.”

The goal was simple: Keep playing soccer while keeping everyone healthy. Those who got COVID expressed more immediate concern with the season being cancelled than their own well-being.

With his lungs still aching while recovering from COVID, Alvarez would run around his neighborhood late at night so he didn’t fall behind the rest of his team’s conditioning. Working summer construction jobs in Pocatello, you’d be hard pressed to see Villa in a mask. When soccer season began, it was practically glued to his face as he bragged about the hand sanitizer bottle in his backpack. Junior goalie Angel Rosales was petrified to get his COVID test at Holt Arena, even more so when the swab tickled his brain. But it helped him get on the pitch quicker, so he took it without complaints.

“It was a really hard year,” senior midfielder Jose Jaime said. “For us to fight through it, I’d say we were a really strong team overall.”

Before the district tournament, American Falls’ coaches held a team meeting. Wight looked around the room at two dozen teenagers who had done so much to simply play soccer before telling each to list something they were proud of as an individual and something the team did to make them proud.

One of the first kids to speak was sophomore Josue Ayala.

“I’m really proud we’ve kept our team safe through COVID,” he said.

“They’re still taking it pretty seriously,” Wight said. “The season’s over but they still know, this is what we need to do. Now, maybe it’s not to keep the soccer season going but to stay in school.

“And when the season ended, I told the boys, ‘You realize I’m still going to be bugging you about masks, right?’”