SCHSL sets guidelines for rescheduling games

The South Carolina High School sent out a memo to all athletic directors and football coaches Monday outlining possible contingency plans if their games are unable to be played this week because of the flooding throughout the state.

Games can be either played Saturday or Monday or as late as Oct. 14 if they are postponed Friday. Spring Valley was the first Midlands school to change its game for this week. The Vikings will host Blythewood on Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Ben Lippen at Cardinal Newman will be played Saturday at 6 p.m. Hammond’s game at Porter-Gaud has been postponed and no makeup date has been set yet.

The SCHSL said there should be a minimum of two days off between games. The SCHSL said the suggestions aren’t ideal and player safety is to be considered first when rescheduling games.

If schools can’t agree to arrangements for rescheduling a game, then the schools and SCHSL will discus a way to handle it.

If there are region implications when the two schools can’t agree on rescheduling a game, the region will decide what impact on a non-played game will have on the playoffs.

All of the SCHSL games involving Midlands teams were played last week but some games involving other teams from the Pee Dee, Myrtle Beach and Charleston area weren’t played so teams are scrambling to make up games from last week.

The South Carolina Independent Schools also set a similar contingency plan for its schools. SCISA said schools may mutually agree to a time/date/site and can utilize Saturday, Monday or Tuesday or another week to get the game played.

If the contest is a region contest and the game is not played, after the last game of the season if the game has region standings and playoff implications, a 10-yard line overtime procedure could be played on Nov. 2 to determine the standings.

Heathwood Hall was the only Midlands SCISA school not to play its game last week and is scheduled to make it up Oct. 13 at home against Porter-Gaud.

Both the SCHSL and SCISA haven’t made any decisions regarding Saturday’s swimming state championships. The SCHSL meet is in Columbia and SCISA is in Augusta, Georgia.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 5:28 PM.