Wild weather means scheduling changes for area football teams

The expected weekend of high-profile football match-ups has been whittled down to a handful of games due to the heavy rains from last weekend and the early portion of this week.

School closings, travel restrictions and field conditions have effectively cut the number of Week 7 games in half. It’s a secondary concern to safety, but that doesn’t mean the area’s football coaches are forgetting about the situation.

“We’ll just sit and wait, and when they tell us we can practice,” Waccamaw’s Tyronne Davis said. “We still have a job to do. But, unfortunately, we’ve got situations where kids might be flooded in [in other areas]. We have to be sympathetic and understanding to everyone.”

Waccamaw and fellow Georgetown County School District programs Georgetown and Carvers Bay (as well as Andrews) were not in school all week. That meant no games, practices or film sessions. The district then extended it to Saturday, citing road closures and the threat of future flooding.

That meant those four teams – two of which were already behind a game because of last week – will have fewer weeks available than games remaining. Waccamaw, and by extension, Loris, were affected the most in terms of football scheduling.

Neither team was able to play last week (Waccamaw vs. Mullins, Loris at Marion). The Class AA region coordinators voted on a move that on Tuesday was approved by the South Carolina High School League to extend the regular season. The postseason will now start on Nov. 13 (as opposed to Nov. 6), and the planned off week between the state semifinals and finals will disappear.

Still, with Waccamaw’s regularly scheduled-game at Loris postponed, those two teams will enter next week two games behind Region VIII-AA teams Aynor and Dillon, and one game behind Marion and Mullins.

Plenty of other area games have been affected, too.

Conway’s home game against West Florence was moved to Coastal Carolina’s Brooks Stadium. The Tigers’ on-campus field had been under approximately three 3 of water on Sunday. And although most of it had drained by Monday, the damage to the field was enough to warrant a move.

Other teams, citing field issues of their own and a lack of practice – again, no school means no practice – moved games back at least a day. St. James’ Thursday game at Wilson was changed to Friday, and Myrtle Beach’s Friday game at Lake City was pushed back to Saturday.

Aynor’s home game against Marion and Carolina Forest’s Region VI-AAAA home opener against Socastee were the only two games unchanged.

This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Wild weather means scheduling changes for area football teams."