Coach recovering from dangerous infection
GILROY
The Gilroy High School wrestling room tested negative for a particularly dangerous strain of staph bacteria that sickened a coach last month.
The methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly called MRSA, killed several people in the eastern United States during October, and was found in the Bay Area. The portable building housing the wrestling room was immediately shut down Oct. 23 after mold was found and wrestling coach Mike Koester fell ill with a MRSA staph infection.
However, staph is not contracted from mold, said Joy Alexiou of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. “Mold is a fungus and staph is a bacteria. You can’t get MRSA from mold.”
A private lab took several samples from the wrestling room, the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, coaches’ offices, main and auxiliary gyms.
Wrestlers have been practicing in the auxiliary gym since the wrestling room was closed.
“There’s no reason to keep that room closed because of staph but there are some other issues,” Principal James Maxwell said. “The room needs repairs anyway. The walls look bad and the ventilation’s not good.”
Koester, who was hospitalized for MRSA on Oct. 26, was released from Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.
He has one more week’s worth of vancomycin, an antibiotic the medical community prescribes as a last resort to staph, to intravenously self-administer.
He is working from home, scheduling the high school’s wrestling meets and registering teams for the Mid-Cals Wrestling Championship that is held at GHS in January.
“I’ll be happy when this is all over,” Koester said. “I’m getting cabin fever.”
Surprised that staph wasn’t found in the wrestling room, Koester is undecided as to what he will do next.
“That’s amazing that they found nothing,” Koester said. “I don’t believe it.”
