Just when it appeared Erie had gotten past its field issues, Mother Nature greeted the Tigers with another twist.
Erie doesn’t feel alone this time, however, as all of St. Vrain Valley School District sports have been postponed throughout the weekend because of the recent rainstorms and flooding — with the exception of possible football on Saturday.
“We were talking about it, and this is the first time we can ever remember having to reschedule football games in September,” SVVSD athletic director Rob Berry said.
Erie’s plight is perhaps the most troublesome. A summer storm forced the Tigers off their playing surface for the first few weeks of football practices in August, but the field was repaired just in time for the Tigers’ first home game last week against Berthoud.
But the newest onslaught of deluges caused more extensive flooding. According to Erie athletic director Richie Wildenhaus, who passed along the accompanying photos, the Tigers’ home game, originally scheduled for Friday night, could be moved to Mead. The earliest it will be played is Saturday, and the Colorado High School Activities Association has opened the door for teams to play Monday if need be.
Erie is one of many schools forced with the having to make contingency plans on the fly. Frederick, for instance, won’t know until noon on Friday whether travel accommodations will be available for its game against Berthoud. Local venues have been quick to lend a helping hand.
“With Frederick, Mead and Everly-Montgomery having synthetic turf, everyone has been very good about their open dates and open times,” Berry said. “If we needed to run doubleheaders — like on Saturday, running one game at 11, one at 2:30 — the building ADs have been very open to that.”
Erie originally had moved its first two home games (including the Skyline contest) to Mead after the summer flood damage, but had since moved them back home. Erie also experienced water issues with its baseball field in the spring and its tennis courts in the summer. The entire SVVSD has felt the trickle effect this week, as football games are in limbo at the most unforeseen time.
“Football presents a bit of a unique challenge, because you can’t play doubleheaders and it would be a tough turnaround if we moved it to Monday,” said Silver Creek coach Mike Apodaca, whose team originally was scheduled against Summit on Friday night. “If we go Monday, we have to play again on Friday. That’s going to be really tough. But that said, we all have more important things to worry about right now.”
While the rescheduling of football games is an ongoing process, one SVVSD team knows when it will play. Niwot, originally scheduled to play at Monarch on Thursday at 6 p.m., instead will face the Coyotes at 4 p.m. Saturday (Warrior Stadium).
Among many other postponements, Longmont Christian scrapped volleyball matches this weekend against Dayspring Christian and Vail Christian.
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