HURRICANE MATTHEW: County schools resume practice Monday, make up games

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 14, 2016 10:00 AM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

A return to normalcy is coming soon.

And it's the perfect remedy needed to help communities heal after experiencing the effects of one of the devastating and heart-wrenching storms in the history of Wayne County.

Dr. Michael Dunsmore, superintendent of Wayne County Public Schools, gave the OK for fall sports practices to resume Monday after 3 p.m. All students and coaches must be off campus by 6 p.m. each day.

Area football coaches hope to return to competition Oct. 21. Rosewood and Charles B. Aycock will get back on schedule with make-up games on Oct. 25.

Regular-season play ends Nov. 4.

"We still start practices and play when allowed," Goldsboro High athletics director Dwight Sutton said. "(Our) conference has not met to determine anything else. I would assume we will play games as scheduled and make up games if possible. We are currently emailing thoughts and suggestions."

The N.C. High School Athletic Association restructured its tennis playoffs on Wednesday. Dual-team competition begins Oct. 25. The individual regionals for singles and doubles are Oct. 21 and 22.

Que Tucker, commissioner of the NCHSAA, said in a statement that "the postseason schedules for volleyball, cross country, men's soccer and football remain unchanged at this time. As schedules are amended or changed, we will update our membership."

The Carolina 1-A Conference initially decided not to complete its regular-season volleyball schedule. Further conversations with Dean Sauls, WCPS assistant superintendent for support services, encouraged the schools to play the games.

Defending league champ Princeton (12-0 Carolina) holds a one-game advantage over Lakewood in conference play. Surging Rosewood is third, followed by Hobbton.

Volleyball has emerged as a major issue for the 3-A schools in the split-classification Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference. Rivals CBA and Eastern Wayne still have to play each other again -- a match that has a significant impact on postseason seeding.

Golden Falcons athletics director Charles Davis said a tie-breaking procedure may be needed to determine the higher-seeded 3-A qualifier depending on the outcome.

EW won the first meeting in five sets.

The Association's playoff deadline for volleyball is Oct. 20.

Hurricane Matthew dumped nearly 17 inches of rain throughout the county, which flooded parts of Lane Tree Golf Club -- the original site of the 2016 Classes 1-A/2-A Mideast Regional individual girls' golf championships.

The regional has been moved to Timberlake CC near Clinton and will be played next Tuesday.

At first, Mideast Regional director Jonathan Burke and Rosewood head coach Shay Campbell weren't sure if WCPS officials would allow the golfers to participate in the regionals. But Sauls agreed the players deserved to go.

"That solves a lot of our problems unless the Association says we are postponing the regionals to a later date," Campbell said. "(Now) everybody just has to be safe about getting there and back."

The 3-A East Regional is Monday at Reedy Creek.