Delay of game
Coaches, players finding many ways to spend opening weekend of season
On a sunny Thursday afternoon that suggests the worst of Hurricane Harvey is in the past, Mike Ferrell is driving to Precinct 1 in Brazoria County to get sandbags for his house.
His neighborhood was under voluntary evacuation from the Brazos River crest. He has players volunteering to fill sandbags to help protect other homes.
“There are fish swimming on my street,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell’s head coaching debut with Brazosport is secondary at this moment. While Week 1 commences elsewhere throughout the state, football is secondary in the Greater Houston area and Southeast Texas.
Ferrell is thankful he doesn’t have any horror stories to tell concerning himself, his staff or his players.
His heart is heavy for those who have seen worse.
Members of the Clear Creek High School community lost beloved and former track and field coach Ruben Jordan to the floods. At least 37 have been found dead in the hurricane’s aftermath. Clear Creek football coach Darrell Warden had known Jordan for 30 years.
Klein coach Shane Hallmark spent time earlier this week rescuing families on his boat.
Dickinson coach John Snelson suffered flooding in his home as the city southeast of Houston was one of the hardest hit in the area.
Kingwood High School is flooded and it’s not alone. Families have been displaced
by the week’s storms while others are still stuck in their homes. Residents in Missouri City’s Sienna Plantation are under evacuation orders while the Brazos River crests. Ridge Point High School suffered structural damage this week.
Porter coach Jim Holley has been through three of these — the floods of 1994, Hurricane Ike and this week’s devastations. It never gets easier to handle.
Oak Ridge assistant coach James Croley had to be rescued by first responders from the flooding at his apartment complex.
Instead of trumpeting the start of the season on social media, coaches have used team Twitter accounts to account for their players during the storm.
A little after 7 p.m. Friday, these coaches were supposed to be running onto the field with players, ready to open the 2017 campaign. Instead, numerous athletes from various high school athletics programs have spent time volunteering in some form or fashion this week, helping the unfortunate.
“It’s second place right now,” Oak Ridge coach Dereck Rush said. “Football is the farthest thing from the mind, and it kind of puts you back in the reality as far as the things that are important right now.”
Rush knows the value of normalcy in a week like this, however. It’s why the weight room is open for voluntary workouts Friday and other schools have followed suit.
Off and on
Summer Creek is actually practicing Monday and players will be fed afterward. Coaches are forced to keep an eye toward the season despite the emotional week, if for no other reason than it might bode well for the players’ well-being.
The storms already wiped out Week 1 in the Greater Houston area with week-long school district closures. Week 2 will be impacted. There are no plans to reschedule games for now.
Oak Ridge had Dawson scheduled for Friday, but the Sept. 9 game against Elkins at Hall Stadium could be played.
Houston Independent School District extended the delay to the start of school to Sept. 11, meaning facilities are unavailable for use for another week. Fort Bend and Katy ISDs followed.
Even the University Interscholastic League gave some insight on the next steps toward the season. The UIL is introducing a waiver process for displaced student-athletes from Hurricane Harvey to attend other schools. It could make way for numerous transfers.
Cy-Fair ISD officials are still assessing the damage to their schools and won’t have a clear idea of the next steps forward until Friday afternoon. The area was ravaged by tornadoes during the storms. The conundrum here is five CFISD teams already lost Week 1 to the storms and are on a bye week in Week 2. The other five may be able to play, gaining a week to work out kinks in an inconsequential game.
Secondary concern
This 10-team district is afforded just one non-district game. So a schedule completely or predominantly comprised of district games could be commonplace throughout the city in 2017.
“I think right now our games and our sports become secondary to kind of taking care of our people and their needs,” CFISD athletic director Ray Zepeda said.
“But I do think it’ll be good to get back to the business of playing games and returning to some sense of normalcy.”
adam.coleman@chron.com twitter.com/chroncoleman