Weather impact: Class 2A high school football teams get schedule help

Class 2A football teams in South Carolina will have an extra week to play their football games that have been postponed because of flooding throughout the state.

On Tuesday, the South Carolina High School League approved a proposal allowing games postponed last week or this week to be made up Nov. 6. That move will push back the start of the 2A playoffs to Nov. 13. There were 10 Class 2A games around the state that were not played last week because of the weather.

The proposal, spearheaded by Dillon football coach/athletics director Jackie Hayes, works easily in Class 2A because there already was an off week between the lower/upper state championships and the state championships at Benedict on Dec. 4.

“It is a smart thing,” Batesburg-Leesville coach Perry Woolbright said. “Rather than force some teams to play three games in 10 days, this is fair to them and it makes sense since we had the bye week built in.”

Woolbright said his team might not need the extra week and was hopeful the Panthers’ game at Ninety Six would be played Friday. But other Midlands schools such as Eau Claire, Keenan and Columbia will need it because Richland One and Two school districts have cancelled classes for the rest of the week.

Other non-2A Midlands schools in Richland One and Two will be left to determine makeup dates for their games this week. Blythewood at Spring Valley and Westwood at Lugoff-Elgin have been tentatively rescheduled for Monday.

A.C. Flora at Chapin and Richland Northeast at Dreher have been postponed. Chapin coach Justin Gentry said Wednesday night coaches from region are meeting this week to discuss possible makeup dates. Lexington coach Josh Stepp said his team’s game at North Augusta would be played Saturday night if Lexington is back in school by Thursday.

The SCHSL sent out a memo to all athletics directors and football coaches Monday outlining contingency plans if their games are unable to be played this week.

Games can be either played Monday, which doesn’t seem likely with many schools out until next week, or as late as Oct. 14 if they are postponed Friday. The league said there would be a minimum of two days off between 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 a non-played game will have on the playoffs.

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

If a region game is not played, and it is later determined the game has region standings and playoff implications, a 10-yard line overtime procedure could be played on Nov. 2 to determine standings.

Hammond postponed its game at Porter-Guard on Friday and no makeup date as been set. Ben Lippen’s game at Cardinal Newman has been moved to Monday, assuming both schools are back in session Thursday.

Heathwood Hall was the only Midlands SCISA school not to play its game last week and is scheduled to host Porter-Gaud on Oct. 13. Heathwood is scheduled to play at Augusta Christian on Friday.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Weather impact: Class 2A high school football teams get schedule help."