How Tropical Storm Harvey has affected this week’s high school football schedule | Charlotte Observer

Tropical Storm Harvey is expected to pay a visit to the Charlotte area Thursday and Friday, dumping up to 4 inches of rain. At least six high school football games were moved to Wednesday, and more than 20 to Thursday.

Four games involving Mecklenburg County teams have been moved: Providence Day will play at Andrew Jackson (S.C.) Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Hopewell will play at Monroe Thursday at 6. Also, Garinger will play at West Mecklenburg, and Concord will play at Hough. Those games will kick off Thursday at 7.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools athletics director Sue Doran said individual home schools will decide whether to move games. There are eight games scheduled Friday that involve CMS home teams.

Five of those are at schools that have artificial turf fields: Concord at Hough; Harding at West Charlotte; Independence at Olympic; Marvin Ridge at Ardrey Kell; and Vance at Rocky River. Two local teams are scheduled to host games on grass fields, which are susceptible to damage in extreme wet conditions: Berry at East Mecklenburg, and Providence at Myers Park.

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Doran said schools have the option to move games to Thursday or keep them on Friday. She said any games not completed on either night will be played on Monday.

Myers Park athletics director Rick Lewis said he didn’t want to play Thursday because of heavy rains expected and because of the Carolina Panthers’ home exhibition against Pittsburgh, which might hurt attendance as fans will either attend the NFL game or watch at home on television. Lewis said he was planning to play Friday, but if wet weather or field conditions force his hand, he would move the game to Monday.

Football games are usually the biggest money-maker for high schools, and Friday night games deliver the biggest crowds. However, crowds will often slim dramatically in the type of wet conditions expected in Charlotte Friday. But East Mecklenburg coach Barry Shuford said crowds will also be slim on a Monday.

“Attendance,” he said, “is the same on a Monday as on Thursday. But this is not a unique situation. It happens every year. We’ve known since last Friday that there’s a chance there might be a (tropical storm) raining us on this Friday. I know some (non-Charlotte) schools are playing (Wednesday night).”

Shuford said CMS could have a plan in place to have games played on multiple nights at schools that have artificial turf. That would allow teams with grass fields, like East Meck, to play games and not risk damage to their fields in severe weather.

Two years ago, East Meck moved a home game with Butler to Garinger High on a rainy night. Garinger has a turf field.

“With a little forethought, we can pull this off,” Shuford said. “We have turf fields here and if you use them all, over a two- or three-day period, you can play and no one has to play Monday. Because when you play Monday, you turn around and the next Friday on three days rest. No one likes to do that.”