ROCKINGHAM – Nearly a month after the Sandhills region of North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Florence, with many areas still reeling from its affects, the National Weather Service is forecasting Hurricane Michael, a current Category 4 storm, to make landfall along the Florida panhandle Wednesday.
While Michael won’t be as much of a direct coastal hit to the region like Florence, the storm is projected to make its way northeast across Georgia as a hurricane, before hitting the Carolinas, likely as a tropical storm on Thursday afternoon. The NWS is also reporting that Michael will drop between four and six inches of rain on Richmond County before spiraling back out to sea by Friday morning.
With the imminent threat of Michael, Richmond Senior High School athletics programs are taking a hit for the second time this season. Following Florence, all athletic programs were out of commission for two weeks while facilities were repaired or students were returned to school around the Sandhills Athletic Conference. As of Wednesday morning, most of Richmond’s sports teams had made up missed games or matches stemming from Florence, but Michael will throw a wrench into this week’s remaining matchups.
Richmond County Schools and superintendent Dr. Cindy Goodman made an announcement shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday via Twitter that said school would be closed Thursday to all students and staff.
At the time of this publication, the biggest shift in the schedule has been the junior varsity football team’s game at Hoke County High School. Originally scheduled for Thursday, RSHS athletic director Ricky Young and varsity head football coach Bryan Till confirmed Tuesday that the game was being bumped up a night to Wednesday at 6 p.m. Currently, Richmond’s varsity homecoming game, which is slated for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, is still going on as planned.
The JV Raider team (5-0) is coming off a 42-6 win on the road at Jack Britt last week, its 24th-straight win. With Till’s varsity team (5-1), Richmond extended its winning streak to four games last Friday by blasting the Buccaneers 31-8, staying atop the SAC standings.
Also confirmed by Richmond head soccer coach Chris Larsen, the Raiders’ two remaining matches this week against SAC opponents Lumberton and Scotland high schools have been postponed. Richmond was supposed to host Lumberton Wednesday and Scotland Thursday, and Young confirmed that the Lumberton match has been rescheduled for Monday, Oct. 29, and the Raiders will face the Fighting Scots instead on Thursday, Oct. 24.
On Monday, the Raiders outlasted second-place Hoke County 3-1 in penalty kicks, a big-time SAC win, and Richmond needs the remaining SAC games on the schedule to be made up if it wants to make a late run for the state playoffs.
The only other programs in action for the remainder of the week are Mike Way’s tennis team and Ashleigh Larsen’s volleyball team. Both programs are supposed to wrap up regular season play, tennis on Wednesday at home against SAC-leading Pinecrest, and volleyball Thursday at Scotland, a team that trails the Lady Raiders by three games in the standings.
Richmond tennis has won 11 matches in a row, and is in second place behind the Lady Patriots. On the indoor court, the Lady Raider volleyball team has one five in a row, most recently Tuesday’s senior night win over Seventy-First High School.
Young said that the tennis match for Wednesday is “cancelled” with no makeup date given, and the volleyball match against Scotland is postponed due to Richmond County Schools’ closing Thursday.
ROSports will report on any updated schedules as they are reported.
