CMS coaches, ADs upset with plan to move high school football games to Monday | Charlotte Observer

Some Mecklenburg County athletics directors and high school football coaches are upset with a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools decision on how to handle rescheduling football games that might be affected by tropical storm Hermine.

Hermine is expected to drop heavy rain on the Charlotte area Friday and could cause high school football games to be postponed. For now, CMS plans to move all but two postponed games to Monday if necessary, district athletics director Sue Doran told the Observer via email.

Danville (Va.) at Vance and Byrnes (S.C.) at Mallard Creek could be moved to Saturday. School officials will decide early Friday whether to move those games.

Other school officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were ready to move games to Thursday night but were told by the district they could not because the company CMS uses to help with game management, Show Pros, had too many workers at Thursday’s Carolina Panthers-Pittsburgh Steelers game at Bank of America Stadium.

One local high school football coach noted the Panthers also played New England last Friday, when there was a full schedule of high school games.

“I don’t think there’s a difference,” he said, “and we should all be allowed to play Saturday, not just two schools.”

Doran said that the Vance and Mallard Creek games could be scheduled for Saturday because they involved “visiting teams traveling a distance to play.”

Two county teams had games moved to Thursday -- Ardrey Kell at Marvin Ridge and Rocky River at Sun Valley. CMS schools were visiting teams in those games and had to follow the rescheduling recommendations made by the home school.

Two other CMS schools -- South Mecklenburg (at Rock Hill Northwestern) and Butler (at Western Alamance) -- are scheduled to play Friday. Butler athletics director Chris Satterfield said if the teams don’t play Friday, he expected the game to be moved to Monday. Northwestern-South Meck would play Saturday at noon if it’s postponed Friday.

Some area coaches believe teams will gain a competitive advantage by playing Thursday, Friday or Saturday, while others have to play Monday -- and then play again the following Friday on a short week.

“It’s also a safety issue with kids playing two games in five days,” an athletics director said.

CMS has played postponed games on Saturdays in the past, but in recent years has almost always moved them to Monday, citing concerns with having enough game staffing officials to play a full Saturday schedule.