Prep notebook: Rainfall wreaking havoc on area fields, teams’ schedules

The picture Chuck Jordan snapped and sent to a few coaches on Sunday circulated quickly, the eye-popping visual spread on social media via football fans and those who simply were taken back by the sheer amount of water.

His Conway football field was under more than three feet of water, and the hip-high fence surrounding the playing surface was barely visible. The rains over the course of four days and ensuing overflow of Crab Tree Swamp left the Backyard looking more like an Olympic-sized swimming pool than a football field.

Taking all that into account, when he returned less than 18 hours later, the 33-year Tigers coach was blindsided again.

“I was extremely surprised [Sunday] at the amount of water,” Jordan said. “And I was equally surprised [Monday] when it was gone.”

When the water levels in the area adjacent to the stadium began to drain overnight, it allowed the field to do the same. Only the extended portions of the field were still holding water.

It was a load off, as the longer that water sat, the more damage it could do. What’s more, despite the look of the field, and the fact that both concessions stands were flooded, the Derrick-Sasser Fieldhouse remained dry.

As for the field itself, he didn’t have a reliable estimate on when it may be ready for use again.

“I don’t know if you’re looking at a day. I don’t know if it’s gonna take a week,” Jordan said. “My common sense tells me it’s going to take a while.”

Moving forward, Conway and the rest of the area are in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to high school football, and for good reason. Horry County Schools and the Georgetown County School District were both closed on Monday and Tuesday.

That means Waccamaw’s home game against Mullins, originally scheduled for Friday and delayed until Monday, can’t be played until at least Wednesday. Loris is in the same position for its road game at Marion.

It could leave the two local programs in a situation where they have to play three games in 10 days. The South Carolina High School League was advising schools on how to proceed, but it had no plans as of Monday afternoon to make a full postponement for games this week.

“It’s not any kind of grand brush stroke,” SCHSL spokeswoman Tammie Newman said. “There are some guidelines that we would like them to follow.”

The SCHSL would like for schools to remain patient with each other, but also keep open the lines of communication in order to keep delayed games in perspective. That said, many coaches are left trying to make plans for the coming week.

For Conway and other area programs, that meant looking for acceptable substitutes.

“The option that comes to mind is a turf field,” Jordan said. “I can’t imagine another school allowing you to play on their field even if they were away. I’ve been in touch with a few people to ask about some possibilities.”

Jordan didn’t immediately identify those options, but they aren’t hard to figure out. Locally, Coastal Carolina University’s Brooks Stadium, Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium and Ashley Booth Field (next to Doug Shaw) are all FieldTurf, a synthetic surface basically unharmed by the rain that has soaked natural grass fields.

As of Monday, neither of those three options had been locked in for any area teams. However, several coaches said they won’t be able to make some of those arrangements until they are back at work.

If nothing else, it buys them time to quantify the damage to their own fields.

HTC GAME OF THE WEEK

The HTC Game of the Week crew will head to Carolina Forest on Friday for the Panthers’ Region VI-AAAA opener against Socastee.

It will be each team’s second appearance on the broadcast. The game will be aired on HTC Channel 4, as well as HTCConnect.com. It will then be re-aired on Monday.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Rainfall wreaking havoc on area fields, teams’ schedules."