Wilma forces games to tonight

The threat of the hurricane makes Friday night too much of a risk to play.

By SCOTT PURKS
Published October 20, 2005

TAMPA - The possible wrath of Hurricane Wilma sent Hillsborough county athletic directors and coaches scrambling Wednesday, and they switched Friday's county-school football games to 7 tonight.

"It's understandable because you want everyone to be safe," Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia said. "I mean, you don't know what these things are going to do.

"This works out better for us on Thursday, because when it's moved to Monday it makes for a short week. I don't think you'll get anybody complaining about this."

Moving the games, though, was a rather large undertaking, considering 14 were scheduled.

"It is a lot of work to make the changes, but we want to err on the sides of safety," county athletic director Vernon Korhn said. "Plus there are a full slate of district games next week, and moving them to Monday makes it a short week to prepare for all the district games.

"The bottom line, though, is safety. I hope it's bright and sunny on Friday and the hurricane misses the state entirely. And everybody can say I was wrong, and nothing would make me happier."

Private schools - Cambridge, Berkeley Prep and Tampa Catholic - were set to play Friday as scheduled. Administrators did say, however, that things could change this afternoon.

In the season's first week fowl weather threatened Florida's west coast, but county administrators decided to keep the games on Friday night, moving them to 6:30 p.m. Only light rains fell at the start of the games and all were completed as scheduled.

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 01:20:19]