High school coaches make best of 2-game, 4-day span

With rain washing away his team’s chances of playing on a Friday for the second straight week, Fuquay-Varina football coach Jeb Hall’s hand was forced.

Playing two games in one week was unavoidable. Rather than prolong the inevitable, he chose to play twice within four days.

It worked out for the Bengals, who won 36-26 on Sept. 28 against Green Hope and beat Holly Springs 16-8 on two days’ rest Thursday.

“To me, it’s not safe to play two games in one week,” Hall said. “The way I looked at it was, either way, we were still going to have two games in one week at some point. I felt better about going ahead and doing it on Thursday.”

Many area coaches were faced with the same question last week.

Six area teams had to play twice within four days. Wakefield and Fuquay-Varina both went 2-0 over the Monday-Thursday split and Broughton, Triton, Sanderson and Riverside each went 0-2.

“It was a tough call. It was really sort of a ‘What’s the least-worst option out of a bunch of bad choices?’ ” said Broughton coach Billy Lane. “We felt it was a better decision than going with the unknown of what the weekend weather might give us … If we could close the door on the number of weird weeks by playing two games in four days, we felt like we should do that.”

Wet fields a concern

There is not an N.C. High School Athletic Association rule against playing two football games in one week – provided they were not originally scheduled that way – or a rule on how close together games can be played.

Hall said he would like more guidance from the NCHSAA on when teams can play. Currently, teams are told to play on the “next available” day.

NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said usually teams only have to move one day, but moving two games has created new discussion on the topic. It is expected to be an agenda item when the NCHSAA meets with its sports medicine advisory committee Thursday.

“Our preference always is they try to have as much recovery time between games as possible,” Tucker said, saying the committee does not “have the data to show that (playing twice in a week is harmful). But we do know that football is a contact sport and anytime someone is hit, that brain is moving around in there. We just hope that our coaches are making good decisions and are in contact with the health care provider for the team.”

Some coaches who had to make the quick turnaround were worried about potential injuries, but more with the kind that come with playing on rain-soaked field instead of playing too many games too close together.

Lane said his feet sank into the ground in a soggy 24-7 loss at Leesville Road on Thursday.

“We basically play a game on offense and defense in practice in terms of the number of play we script,” Lane said. “I wasn’t worried about the number of hits building up in a short time, but I was worried about slipping and sliding on a wet track.”

The Capitals made it out of the four-day stretch with a few “bumps and bruises” and one turned ankle. Fuquay-Varina had no injuries.

Injuries, however, were of concern for Wake Forest, which did not move its home game up to Thursday. Wake Forest had just played Broughton on Sept. 28 and elected not to play two games within four days, pushing the Millbrook game to Monday to set up two games in five days.

“I think kids need a recovery. They’re going to be sore that next day,” Wake Forest coach Reggie Lucas said. “When you play on a Monday or Tuesday, they don’t have that recovery time so I think it’s best – if you play on a Monday – to try to play on a Friday.”

“It’s one of those things that I would have to think about my prep time with my players. (Playing two games in four days) wouldn’t be totally off the table.”

Getting back on schedule

Coaches agree that getting back on schedule is best for the students involved. Hall said players have a hard time focusing on a Monday game when they’re out of school on the weekend.

“We were just so ready to get back on a normal schedule and not play on another Monday and mess up another week,” Hall said. “Monday-Friday is tough, but Monday-Thursday is really, really tough.”

Typically, high school football players have two days of recovery – Saturday and Sunday – before looking at game film and maybe some weight room time on Monday.

The truncated week meant Fuquay-Varina had one day of recovery and walk-through and another day of a quick two-hour practice.

Lucas said his Cougars would have had just one day of practice after lightning kicked his team off the field on Tuesday.

“I think if I get two full days of practice in, I think I’m OK with playing a short week,” Lucas said. “But if I had it my way, the kids would get three full days of rest before another competition.”

Lane, whose team took reps on Wednesday and stayed inside to stretch and recover on Tuesday, said he didn’t want for the game to need a second postponement if the field had not dried out by Monday – a strong possibility according to some of the predicted rainfall amounts at the time.

“I didn’t want to get into a situation where we were haggling over which Monday to make it up,” Lane said. “We were looking at the possibility that Monday might not even be a definite with how much rain was about to get dropped. Then you’re looking at negotiating weeks into the future about when you might play on a Monday night.”

Coaches won’t have to worry about making a call this weekend. For once, the forecast calls for clear skies.

D. Clay Best contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "High school coaches make best of 2-game, 4-day span."