The South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association is asking the S.C. High School League to put an immediate stop to all fall sports, including football, for two weeks.
The request comes almost one week after Hurricane Helene impacted the Palmetto State, hitting the counties west of the Columbia area and in the Upstate the hardest.
SCACA president Scott Earley sent a letter requesting the stoppage in play statewide to SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton and the state’s athletic coaches on Thursday and posted it to the association’s Twitter (X) page.
Earley confirmed to The State that the coaches association is seeking a postponement in play right now, not just an extension to the regular season. The High School League won’t meet to discuss possible schedule changes until next week at the earliest, according to one report.
“If the schedule remains unchanged, affected teams may be forced to play multiple games in one week, simply to meet the season end date. This poses a serious risk of injury and diminishes the quality of competition that the SCHSL strives to maintain,” Earley wrote in his letter. “We have made similar adjustments when hurricanes have impacted the Eastern regions of our state, and I believe it is only fair and reasonable that we extend the same consideration to our student athletes and the western regions.
“Postponing the playoffs by two weeks will not only allow affected schools the opportunity to resume practice safely, but it will also enable all teams to compete under equitable conditions. Our student athletes deserve the chance to represent their schools and communities with the full support and safety that the league has always prioritized.”
Earley said he decided to send the letter Thursday once he saw WSPA-TV’s Pete Yanity report that the SCHSL executive committee wasn’t going to meet until next week on the matter.
“Been waiting to hear something, but on my end I have to represent our members and board,” Earley said. “Just wanted to try to expedite things and offer support for people that are literally under water.”
Singleton told The State earlier this week that no decision has been made on adding additional weeks to the regular season yet. He did say that suspending or pausing the season is not an option, especially for schools that will be able to play this week.
Almost 20 high school football games were postponed statewide last week. Many games have already been postponed for this week, including ones involving schools in Greenville, Spartanburg and Aiken counties — all areas that have yet to return to school or sports practices.
The S.C. High School League in 2015 altered the statewide schedule because of flooding. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew forced the season to be pushed back two weeks, with state championships held in mid-December on the same day as the Shrine Bowl. The high school football season in 2018 was pushed back a week because of Hurricane Florence.
North Carolina’s public school sports association is considering schedule changes because of the hurricane, The Charlotte Observer reported Monday.
Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday that it is adding a week to the regular season for makeup games and pushing the start of playoffs back a week. It was a little easier for Georgia because it already had an off-week between the last week of football regular season and the start of the playoffs. The GHSA make-up date is Nov. 8, and playoffs begin there Nov. 15-16.
The S.C. Independent School Association, which includes most of the state’s private schools, is also dealing with postponements but built Oct. 18 into all of its teams’ schedules as an extra bye week. That date will now be for any necessary makeup games.
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