Broward, Palm games postponed
Broward and Palm Beach public schools won’t be playing high school football games for the second consecutive week.
On Tuesday, officials from both counties announced public schools would be closed for the remainder of the week in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Many of the games scheduled for this week were district contests, meaning they’ll have to be made up at some point in the season.
Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie cited power outages at schools as the reason for the decision during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. Only 52 percent of schools have power fully restored.
On Monday, Palm Beach County superintendent Robert Avossa announced the district would be closed through Wednesday, with the hope of resuming classes on Thursday. However, due to county-wide power outages — 96 percent of the schools were without power or AC as of Monday afternoon AUTO RACING: Danica Patrick, the only female driver at NASCAR’s top level, is likely at the end of her driving career after a sponsorship shake-up left her without a ride at Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick said on her Facebook page that her time with Stewart-Haas “had come to an end” due to a new sponsorship arrangement next season. Smithfield Foods said it will become a primary sponsor at Stewart-Haas next year.
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If school resumes on Monday, teams will have gone close to two weeks without practice. Palm Beach teams last hit the field on Tuesday and Broward teams the following day.
Private schools don’t have to adhere to the public school rulings, but teams quickly began canceling games and no contests have been confirmed for this weekend. added its first women’s division in 2013. Also, Mickey Gall, who won a high-profile fight over former WWE champion CM Punk a year ago, will face Randy Brown in a welterweight bout.
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The Dolphins play the Los Angeles Chargers on the road for their season opener after having last week’s game against Tampa Bay pushed back to Nov. 19 because of Irma.
Dolphins owner Steve Ross flew many players, staff, coaches and their families to Southern California on Friday night to escape Hurricane Irma. Ross flew another group to Southern California on Saturday. He’ll fly the families back, at his expense, when it’s deemed safe.
Other players, however, with team permission, departed for destinations of their choice.
Meanwhile, coaches and staff in Southern California are preparing to have a normal week heading into the Chargers game.
The Dolphins will begin practicing in Oxnard, at the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp facility on Wednesday.
Players were still arriving in Southern California on Monday, and the Dolphins are hopeful every player will get there in time, but there’s no guarantee each can complete his journey due to Hurricane Irma-related travel disruptions. Players who fled Hurricane Irma and/or used the postponed game as a bye week are traveling from many parts of the country to reach Southern California, but when they arrive depends largely on whether they were able to get a ticket, which airport they’re departing from, and which airport they land.
The Dolphins don’t play a home game at Hard Rock Stadium until Oct. 8 against the Tennessee Titans.
The Dolphins inquired with the NFL about moving their Oct. 1 game in London against New Orleans to Hard Rock Stadium, but the league said the game must Tom Garfinkel, Dolphins president and CEO, announcing on Twitter the results of the engineers’ inspection
stay in London according to a source.
The Dolphins, who are hosting Super Bowl LIV in 2020, agreed to play in London this year as part of an NFL resolution that states teams must play an international game within five years of being awarded a Super Bowl.
Ross had more than $500 million of renovation work completed during the offseason and the stadium was said to have been built to withstand a category 4 hurricane. Irma wasn’t that strong as it swept across South Florida on Sunday but the stadium still must be inspected.
If the training facility is damaged, the Dolphins would practice in West Virginia in preparation for their Sept. 24 game at the New York Jets.
If the Dolphins were forced to practice away from home prior to the Jets game they would of had an early-season odyssey that included practicing in Southern California, then playing the Chargers in Los Angeles, then traveling to West Virginia for a week, then going to New York to play the Jets, then practicing back home in South Florida before traveling to London to face the Saints.
Staff writer Chris Perkins contributed to this report.