Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
For some county teams, tonight's games will be their second in four or five days.
By JOHN SCHWARB
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 21, 2001
This weekend, Kyle Wolfinbarger and a few teammates planned to head to Citrus County for some fishing.
Not anymore.
Instead, sleep will undoubtedly be a more attractive activity for the Countryside quarterback after an exhausting, bizarre week.
For nearly everyone associated with high school football, Week 4 was unlike any other in recent memory. Due to last week's terrorist attacks and Tropical Storm Gabrielle, Week 3's games were postponed and pushed into the start of this week, creating a challenging stretch of two games in four or five days.
By the end of tonight, thankfully, it will be over.
"I'd like to only do this once in my high school career," Wolfinbarger said. "It's been tough."
Players and coaches swear by their weekly game plans, with distinct duties to accomplish each day leading up to the climax on Friday night. This week, however, the usual plans were erased from the chalkboard as teams tried to pace themselves for essentially two Friday nights.
Monday and Tuesday, teams made up last week's postponed games, taking on opponents they began to study and prepare for the weekend of Sept. 8-9. But after the unusual early-week contests, coaches found themselves stuck in what would have been the middle of a normal week.
"It was hard to figure out what to do," East Lake coach Tom Keeler said. "Do we try to correct the things we did against Gibbs (Tuesday), or do we just look forward to Seminole? They're two different teams."
Most county teams had just two days of practice between games, hardly enough time for in-depth preparation geared toward an opponent. Consequently, most teams will rely on basic packages that have been standard since training camp.
Granted, only one team tonight (Clearwater Central Catholic) has a district game. Many coaches said that if their teams had been looking at playing games with postseason implications on two days' rest, the Monday/Tuesday schedule might not have existed. "That was our biggest concern," Seminole coach Sam Roper said.
"If we had to, we'd have dropped the non-district game and played nine (regular-season) games. I'd hate to think if we had to go against (district foes) Northeast or Gibbs with two days to prepare."
Schools were given the option by county athletic director Bob Hosack to pick up an additional day of practice by pushing Friday's games to Saturday. Only one host school, Boca Ciega, took the offer (and will play Largo). Everyone else was content to end the week on a familiar note.
Officials were especially thankful. Sunshine Football Officials Association president Phillip Kelly said a glut of Saturday games would have created a "nightmare of assignments" that would have conflicted with youth leagues.
During the week, Kelly and other administrators successfully shuffled schedules to pull off two game nights. Some schools hosted two games and others traveled for two, creating double the responsibility for finding everything from stadium volunteers to buses.
"We all worked together pretty closely, which can get a little hectic," said Indian Rocks Christian athletic director Phil Farver, who joked that he could have used an "event staff" shirt like the ones seen at major sporting events.
This week, working around two games was a major sporting event in itself.
- Staff writer Rodney Page contributed to this report.