Whitfield: NCHSAA keeping close eye on weather

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 25, 2015 1:48 PM

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CHAPEL HILL -- Contingency plans are in place to handle Tuesday's inclement weather, but with the threat of another snowstorm, the window of playing days has become smaller.

That's the main consensus Davis Whitfield, commissioner of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, offered in an exclusive phone interview with the News-Argus on Tuesday evening.

Should more snow envelope the eastern, coastal, northeastern and southern regions of the state, an alternate plan will go into effect regarding the 2015 men's and women's basketball playoffs. Wayne County Public Schools and surrounding systems decided to shut their doors for today late Tuesday evening.

"We do have a few games that were being played tonight, but not very many," said Whitfield, who monitors numerous weather sources. "That will put us in a different mode. Obviously, we'll have to alter the schedule ... see how many games we get in tonight and we'll take it one day at a time."

The Association said on its website Tuesday that teams could play as early as 5 p.m. today. However, school systems that are not in session traditionally cancel all after-school activities regardless if it's practice or game day in a particular sport.

Whitfield did say western North Carolina schools operate under different procedures regarding the weather.

"If they never played when they had inclement weather, they'd hardly have a winter season," Whitfield said. "We'll see how schools as a whole fare once we get into (the office) today -- who is on delay and who is in school, who is going to participate (in the playoffs) and who is not."

Nine postseason games involving Wayne County schools have already been postponed and athletic directors have pushed their respective contests back one day, including doubleheaders at Eastern Wayne and Goldsboro High.

Johnston County schools are also closed. The Bulldogs' opening-round matchups with defending east champ Martin-Riverside (girls) and No. 1 seed East Carteret (boys) have been rescheduled for Thursday.

A year ago, a mixture of ice and snow blanketed eastern North Carolina and created a major headache during the men's and women's regionals in Fayetteville. The Association, through the cooperation of Crown Coliseum and Crown Arena officials, managed to play three games on two different days to remain on schedule.

"We want to give our teams every opportunity to participate and every opportunity to be successful in these playoffs because this is obviously what you play for all year so we want to try to make good decisions and not speculate at this point," Whitfield said.

"If they play today, I think we can go Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday and stay on schedule. Should we get into the weekend, obviously we're going to have to adjust moving forward. We'll look at regional week and see what we have available."

Whitfield did not say if the Association would consider Sunday games. He added that an executive committee would have to approve the proposal if no alternative plan provided a positive solution.

The four-day eastern regional begins next Tuesday in Fayetteville. The state championships are March 7 in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.