High school wrestler Blake Flovin has been diagnosed with the herpes simplex virus after a tournament in February in San Jose. Known as herpes gladiatorum, or “mat herpes,” the disease is highly contagious and can cause outbreaks for the rest of a person’s life. The virus has been known to infect wrestlers throughout the country over the years.
Herpes gladiatorum is picked up from wrestling mats. The virus is most contagious when skin lesions are present. Although athletes are inspected for communicable diseases prior to matches, Flovin said he has seen students wrestle while infected, often using bandaids or makeup to cover lesions. Flovin’s father, who is the assistant coach at Blake’s high school, says there is high motivation to wrestle in big events no matter what because of college scholarship opportunities.
Flovin broke out in a rash on his face and experienced swollen glands a few days after the wrestling tournament, held Feb. 19-20. Initially thought to be a staph infection, he was diagnosed with mat herpes on Tuesday. All of the coaches of athletes who had wrestled against Flovin were alerted.
Roger Blake is the executive director of the California Interscholastic Federation. He said that they are confident that their practices insure that there is no reason for fear the spread of a contagious disease at the upcoming California state championships. He did acknowledge that all safeguards were not in place at the CCS tournament where Flovin apparently contracted the disease. For example, the girls who were wrestling in the tournament were not given thorough examinations prior to the matches because there were no women there who were qualified to perform them. The girls were given only “cursory checks” before their matches.
Morgan also said that the boys bathroom at Independence High was not clean, and in fact was so dirty that the boys joked that someone was sure to get pink eye. Flovin said that the boys were walking around in the bathroom in their wrestling shoes and then straight onto the mats.
Flovin’s father said that he helped to institute strict hygiene standards at their high school that included requiring wrestlers to step in a pan of disinfectant before stepping on a map. That safety protocol was not in place at Independence High.
Blake Flovin has made attempts to stop the weekend’s state wrestling championships due to fears that other athletes will become infected, but the California Interscholastic Federation says it is not postponing it. The organization says they are confident that their hygiene practices are adequate and that they have no concerns for infection.
Flovin, who was one of the top wrestlers in the state in the 220-pound division, had committed to wrestling at Holy Cross next year. He says “I’m never gonna wrestle again.”