Snow day scrambling
- Updated: December 9, 2017
Inclement weather disrupts TV24 Holiday Showcase schedule, reduced to 3 games; Sacred Heart-Anniston back on
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
“We can plan a pretty picnic, but we can’t predict the weather”
It started out as six games, but now is down to three and a cancelled game that was just as intriguing locally as the event it conflicted with is back on.
That’s what bad weather can do to a sports schedule.
The TV24 Holiday Showcase, one of the highlights of the early-season basketball schedule, is down to three games and the Sacred Heart-Anniston game that originally was cancelled is back on.
Blame Winter Storm Benji, which wrecked havoc on everyone’s Friday schedule, but the final scenario came as the result of about two hectic hours of logistic gymnastics early Saturday morning.
Here’s the updated schedule at Jacksonville State:
White Plains vs. Section, 3:30 pm
Plainview vs. Talladega, 5 pm
Oxford-Alexandria, 6:30 pm
The big loser in the scramble is Gadsden City, which was left with no opponent and no game after being scheduled as the final game of the night.
Here’s how it all shook out:
Saks post-football wasn’t ready yet to play hoops vs. Alexandria, so Ohatchee went in its place.
Grissom couldn’t come to play Oxford, so Alexandria moved into that spot and it game with Saks/Ohatchee got punted.
Chelsea couldn’t come to play Gadsden City and when Sacred Heart’s game at Anniston got canceled the Cardinals, finding themselves without a game, accepted TV24’s invitation to play the Titans.
Suddenly, the Sacred Heart-Anniston game was back on at 7:15 p.m. leaving Gadsden City without an opponent or a game.
And remember, JSU moved its Friday game to Saturday at 1:30, which cut out the other two games on the original Showcase lineup – Cherokee County-Cleburne County and Southside-Clay Central.
So now there are three TV24 Holiday Showcase games at JSU, a Sacred Heart game at Anniston and a partridge in a pear tree.
Anniston coach Torry Brown said it was relatively easy to get the game restarted after the initial cancelation. The schools were going to look for a date to reschedule as it was.
“We just had to let the officials know that it was back on,” Brown said. “It was actually pretty smooth because they want to play us as well.”
Sacred Heart coach Ralph Graves took all the logistic gymnastics stride. “We can plan a pretty picnic,” he said, “but we can’t predict the weather.”
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