PREP FOOTBALL: Hurricane Matthew prompts schedule changes

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 5, 2016 9:57 AM

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Short weeks of preparation for area football teams have become the norm due to inclement weather during the past month.

Why should this week be any different?

As Hurricane Matthew spins up the coast, a state of emergency has been declared in North Carolina. More than 60 counties have been placed under warning and ferry systems have started evacuating residents from the coastal areas.

Currently a Category 4 storm with sustained winds at 125 mph, Matthew is expected to make landfall in the Carolinas sometime either Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Aware of the storm's magnitude, the leadership committee met Tuesday morning at the Wayne County Public Schools office. The group discussed the impending weather expected to affect the during the weekend. By mid-afternoon, county athletics directors from each school moved their respective varsity football games from Friday to Thursday evening.

Those games are North Lenoir at Goldsboro, D.H. Conley at Charles B. Aycock, J.H. Rose at Southern Wayne and Lakewood at Rosewood. Eastern Wayne and Spring Creek each have a "bye" week on their schedule.

All four games kick off at 7 p.m.

The James Kenan at North Duplin and Hobbton at Princeton games, per their respective county school systems, were also moved to Thursday. Each game starts at 7 p.m.

As of this morning, no decision had been announced on Wayne Christian's road game with fellow Colonial Carolina 1-A Conference 8-man member Bethel Christian Academy.

WCPS officials cancelled all after-school activities scheduled for Friday.