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Lessons learned, games moved

By FRANK PASTOR
Published August 25, 2005

Hoping to avoid the scheduling fiasco that cost seven schools opening-week games last season, six county schools agreed Wednesday to move their games up a day in anticipation of Tropical Storm Katrina's approach.

The Wesley Chapel at Gulf, Hudson at River Ridge and Mitchell at Ridgewood games were moved from Friday to tonight at 7:30. Katrina is expected to gain strength in the Atlantic and make landfall early Friday in southeastern Florida.

"I think it's a wise thing to do," Mitchell coach Scott Schmitz said. "You never know where this thing is going to move. I think in the past we've kind of stood pat on it, and this year I didn't want it to happen. You need to ... be proactive and make a decision and try to get these football games in."

Pasco at Springstead, Land O'Lakes at Zephyrhills and Jacksonville Trinity Christian at Bishop McLaughlin were still scheduled for Friday as of press time (any late schedule changes will appear in the main sports section).

Though heavy rain appears to be the main threat from Katrina, county schools are taking no chances after last year, when four hurricanes hit the state and schedules were thrown into chaos. An order by Gov. Jeb Bush to close schools for use as hurricane shelters against Hurricane Frances the afternoon before opening night caught many in the county by surprise, and only Hudson and River Ridge managed to play - four days later.

So, instead of waiting for direction from the county, schools took matters into their own hands this season, with principals signing off on schedule changes.

"It's a lot of carry over from last year," Gulf athletic director Paul Girardi said. "We don't want to come in (today) and find out the storm is going to be in the area Friday night and have to cancel the game and then the storm is still going to hang around Saturday and we have to play Monday when we already have a game scheduled for next Thursday."

Pasco coach Dale Caparaso sounded as if he would have preferred his team's game be rescheduled.

"We lost a game last year (against Ridgewood) because we were not prepared to deal with the last-minute decisions that have to be made with the unpredictability of hurricanes," he said. "Is it better to play the game on Thursday as opposed to Monday? Yes."

Still, rescheduling means contacting other schools, game officials and buses and possibly moving junior varsity games, he said.

"I wish (the storm) wasn't coming," Wesley Chapel coach John Castelamare said. "It could ruin the JV programs if they have to cancel those (games)."

Officials hoped to avoid canceling JV games originally scheduled for tonight by moving them to earlier in the day, said Joe Wajerski of the West Coast Officials Association. Ridgewood moved its JV game to 4 p.m. But not all games could be saved, as Gulf's JV game at Zephyrhills was canceled, Girardi said.

When it comes to changing the schedule, the governor and Florida High School Athletic Association are the highest authorities. If a decision has to be made at the county level, four people are directly involved - superintendent Heather Fiorentino, assistant superintendent Jim Davis, county athletic director Kit Broadbelt and John Boucher, the county's manager of facilities operations and safety. But most decisions are left to the schools themselves.

"We're probably a little more on alert now than we have been in the past," Broadbelt said. "It still is going to be difficult to make a call that involves this entire county unless it's just an obvious situation. It's 40 to 50 miles across. What could be happening in New Port Richey may not be happening in Zephyrhills."

Staff writer Izzy Gould contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 25, 2005, 01:54:04]