Tropical Storm Helene is impacting schools and sports in North-Central Florida. Here's what we know

Tropical Storm Helene is officially here , Florida.

The 8th named storm of the 2024 season, Helene is expected to hit the Big Bend area , near Tallahassee, Thursday evening.

The proximity of the storm to North-Central Florida is causing changes to local high school sports.

Coaches and Parents: Please email nram@gannett.com if any of your games get rescheduled or canceled for this week, so we can update this story.

Which counties have canceled classes?

Most counties in the area have canceled classes. Columbia and Suwannee Counties have done so for Thursday and Friday, as have Gilchrist, Dixie and Union Counties. Levy County closed schools for Wednesday and Thursday.

Alachua County officially canceled schools Wednesday morning. This includes all on-campus extracurricular events for those two days.

Which Gainesville-area high school football games are impacted?

Two games have been moved up two days.

Keystone Heights at Bradford will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday and St. Augustine at Columbia will kickoff at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Trinity Catholic vs. Williston will be played Monday at 7 p.m.

Dunnellon at Eastside was moved to Thursday, October 3 at 7 p.m. from Citizens Field. Buchholz and Gainesville High will play each other on the field the next day.

Newberry at Palatka was postponed to Monday at 6 p.m., Panthers coach Ed Johnson confirmed. He noted it is essential for the two to play since it is a district game.

That's the same reason Buchholz and Nease will still play as scheduled Friday. St. Johns County schools are expected to be open Friday, and Bobcats coach Mark Whittemore said the two will play as long as schools are open.

Two games so far have been canceled: Chiefland at Trenton and Paxon at Union County.

Other games will be postponed or moved up due to school closings in certain counties. Those games include Fort White at Chiles, Suwannee at Wakulla and Branford at Lafayette.

Full Gainesville-area revised HS Football schedule

Wednesday, September 25

Bradford 40, Keystone Heights 0

St. Augustine 27, Columbia 6

Monday, September 30

Newberry at Palatka — 6 p.m.

Central Florida Christian at P.K. Yonge — 6 p.m.

Trinity Catholic at Williston — 7 p.m.

Buchholz at Nease — 7 p.m.

Thursday, October 3

Dunnellon at Eastside — 7:30 p.m.

Postponements

Fort White at Chiles

Suwannee at Wakulla

Branford at Lafayette

St. Francis Catholic at North Bay Haven

Eagle's View at Oak Hall

Cancellations

Chiefland at Trenton

Paxon at Union County

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Tropical Storm Helene is impacting schools and sports in North-Central Florida. Here's what we know