TEAMS MOVE GAMES TO NEW WEEK 11

The South Carolina High School League gave some breathing room to its football teams statewide on Wednesday, in response to the impending visit from Hurricane Matthew's wind and rain this weekend.

With many high school football games already postponed by the teams previously scheduled to compete, the state governing body added a Week 11 to this season.

The change allows programs to move games that were scheduled for this week to Nov. 4, for a final regular-season game before state playoffs begin. Additionally, the football playoffs for all classifications will now begin on Friday, Nov. 11, and the state championships will now be scheduled for Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10.

Many teams in The T&D Region responded by moving their first game in October to the first Friday in November.

For some teams, like Orangeburg-Wilkinson, this means a non-region game will be played after the region slate is complete. For most teams, however, this means moving one region game from early in the region schedule to the end of the original schedule.

“It becomes fair now and it’s better for everybody,” O-W head coach Tommy Brown said. “Otherwise, it would be one-sided for some teams who were rescheduled to play a team on Monday, but couldn’t practice like their opponent would have been doing.

“Now, everybody has the option of the same prep time for each of their remaining games. It’s the best option for everybody involved.”

Coach Brown is unsure what O-W will do with homecoming festivities that were planned for this week’s game. But, the most likely move will be to plan homecoming for the Lower Richland region game on Oct. 28, which is the next Bruins home game.

All T&D Region public schools were closed for Wednesday through Friday of this week. Some were being set up as temporary shelters for people evacuating from the South Carolina coast during Hurricane Matthew’s approach and visit.

With the SCHSL having a rule against football teams practicing on days when schools are shut down, no area teams were allowed to hold practices the remainder of this week. So, playing games that were temporarily moved from Friday to Monday – during Tuesday’s adjustments in scheduling – would have put coaches and players in an odd situation of playing games six full days after their last official practice.

Now, teams will be able to practice again next week, continue on with the original schedule of games, and then play their rescheduled game on the first Friday in November.