For the second time this year, a major storm has forced the GHSA to reschedule high school football games as well as other athletic events.
Hurricane Helene caused unprecedented damage throughout the country and especially here in Georgia. As many homes in Bulloch County are still without power and water, schools were closed this week and all extra-curricular events were also cancelled.
For area football teams that means doing some real juggling to try and get in important region games. Thankfully, the GHSA moved the high school football season back a week and that has helped a lot with scheduling.
Statesboro High will make up their game which was scheduled this Friday against Lakeside on Nov. 8 at 7:30 at Womack Field. Head coach Matt Dobson said it has been a challenging year already, but has faith his team will continue to persevere.
“I think the hardest thing is just not being able to be in contact with our kids every day,” Dobson said. “You worry if they have power and are able to provide for themselves. Our coaches have been doing a great job of trying to communicate with our players and give them resources where it’s available. 10 days is a lot of time between practices, especially right in the middle of your season. You worry where they are mentally at this point and athletics is big on routine. They are way out of their routine, but we are hopeful we can get things back on Monday and they can feel some sense of normal.”
Southeast Bulloch will play Liberty Co. on Tuesday Oct. 18 at 7:00. SEB will play their game against Groves which was scheduled for this Friday on Nov. 8 at 7:30. Head coach Jared Zito himself is still without power so he understands the hardships many people are going through.
“I know people in this whole region have it tough so football games aren’t the most important thing by far,” Zito said. “It’s tough to not be able to see how the guys on our team are doing. We send out a kind of group text to try and communicate the best we can but some people still have no power or cell service so it is tough. We are playing on Tuesday of fall break so our families still have a chance to go out of town if they made plans before all of this. It is not ideal but we are trying our best to attempt to keep things as normal as possible in a time when so many things are going around.”
Portal has rescheduled their game against Savannah High for Nov. 8 at 7:30 at the Portal Athletic Complex. Many Portal residents are still without power and water and coach Jason McEachin says one of the toughest things about the last week has been the inability to reach all of his players.
“I have reached out numerous times on our team messaging app to find out who is in need,” McEachin said. “There have been some we have been able to help, but others we still haven’t heard from. I’ve been coaching for 18 years and have never had to deal with this kind of weather stuff we have already had twice this year. Most of the counties around us are able to meet and practice, and while I understand our county has their reasons for not allowing practices, it is tough to be at a competitive disadvantage. We will be happy for Monday to get here so we can finally get the kids back to a routine again.”
Bulloch Academy cancelled their game which was scheduled for last Friday against Tattnall Square. The Gators had a bye week this Friday so thankfully there wasn’t anything to reschedule.
“We hated losing that Tattnall Square games,” said Gator coach Aaron Phillips. “They are a really good team and we were excited about playing them and the amount of interest the game was getting between a couple teams in the top 10. With our power poll it wouldn’t have made much sense to play them the last week of the season, especially since we would probably play again in the playoffs. We hate that our guys missed so much practice but we have met on Skype and sent game film on our next opponent Frederica so we have tried our best to be proactive through this.”
All fall sports have been affected by having 10 days off. For most teams, region games have been rescheduled while non-region games have been cancelled. For the No. 2 ranked Southeast Bulloch softball team coach Aimee Civalier understands athletics comes second to safety but as far as the season goes, she admits it comes at a tough time to miss games with the seasons wrapping up.
“We are getting ready for the region tournament and then to have to shut things down for 10 days which is tough,” Civalier said. “We are trying to communicate with the girls and see how they are as well as trying to see if they can try and stay in shape and throw, but timing can be an issue. People are without water and power so it’s hard to be upset about sports but it is definitely tough to deal with all of this.”
Statesboro High missed a couple games last week and begin region tournament play Monday despite having 10 days off. The games are currently scheduled to be played at Greenbrier and with the damage to the Augusta area coaches are prepared in case things get moved. No. 6 ranked Bulloch Academy softball will begin postseason soon and are hopeful they can get three games in this week. Portal will have to try and make up at least one region game and are still in contact trying to iron out details. The Portal vs. BA softball game Monday is cancelled.
