ROCKINGHAM – In the span of the past 72-hours, Hurricane Florence, a Category 2 storm when it made landfall in Wilmington, N.C., earlier this weekend, dropped historic amounts of rainfall on Richmond County and the greater Sandhills region.
In conjunction with the Richmond Observer and LIVE at 5’s continuing coverage on the impacts of the now downgraded tropical storm on the local community, ROSports looks at the week ahead for Richmond Senior High School athletics.
Last Tuesday, Richmond County Schools superintendent Dr. Cindy Goodman made the announcement that all RCS extracurricular activities, including athletic events and practices, would be postponed or canceled beginning Wednesday. It was a light week for RSHS athletics, as the only two programs to participate in regularly-scheduled games were the Lady Raider golf and volleyball teams.
With several of Richmond’s Sandhills Athletic Conference opponents located east of Rockingham, where Florence also hit along the Cape Fear River and Lumber River basins, the upcoming week of high school athletics remains unclear.
Lumberton High School was just one of the many SAC schools to be impacted by Florence, and as reported by several media outlets, the school’s football field was almost entirely submerged in water on Saturday.
ROSports spoke to RSHS athletic director Ricky Young Sunday afternoon, and his consensus for the upcoming week is that major decisions regarding all Richmond athletic events will be made in the coming days. Richmond’s athletic facilities sustained minimal damage during the storm, as a couple of downed trees, some ripped windscreen nettting and the soccer program’s sponsor board were the only casualties.
“It’s too early to tell right now,” Young said, who had been assisting with RSHS’ emergency shelter over the weekend. “We have to wait and see what the different school systems are going to do.
“Once we know that, I’m sure we’ll have an athletic director’s teleconference to sort out schedules,” he added.
Goodman and RCS also made the statement Sunday afternoon that due to continued threats of Florence, and the impact of local power outages, the school system would be closed Monday, Sept. 17. With that, Richmond’s boys soccer team (at Seventy-First High School) and girls golf team (Pinecrest Country Club, Lumberton) will lose another respective match.
Last week, the Raider soccer team wasn’t able to compete in either of its two scheduled matches, so Monday’s postponement makes it the third-straight game to be pushed to a later date. Only the match against Hoke County High School from last Monday has been rescheduled to date, and is now slated for Monday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.
Like Young noted, the return of Richmond athletics is not just dependent of RSHS’ facilities and school week, but also of those in the surrounding counties. According to WRAL in Raleigh, Roberson County Public Schools, which includes Lumberton and Purnell Swett high schools, is “closed until further notice” starting Monday.
Cumberland County, which houses Jack Britt and Seventy-First high schools, has followed suit in closing schools on Monday.
The Richmond cross country, football, tennis and volleyball programs all have scheduled events either on the road or at home against schools from the closed areas. The Raider football team, which is coming off its bye week, is supposed to travel to Purnell Swett on Friday night. Head coach Bryan Till noted “we don’t know much about what’s going on yet” on Sunday afternoon, and the game remains uncertain if it will be played in Pembroke or at Richmond this Friday.
Below is a listing of the regularly scheduled sporting events for all six of Richmond’s programs this week. With several counties being out of school until further notice, ROSports is awaiting official word that games and matches have been postponed, canceled or rescheduled.
ROSports will update the schedule as new information and details become available, including make-up dates.
Monday, Sept. 17:
RCS closed — all RCS sporting events canceled.
Tuesday, Sept. 18:
Cross County — home vs. Lumberton, Jack Britt and Purnell Swett high schools, 5 p.m.
Tennis — home vs. Pinecrest High School, 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 19:
Soccer — home vs. Scotland, 5:15 p.m. (junior varsity) and 7 p.m. (varsity)
Volleyball — away at Anson, 4:30 p.m. (junior varsity) and 5:30 p.m. (varsity)
Thursday, Sept. 20:
Junior Varsity Football: home vs. Purnell Swett, 6:30 p.m.
Soccer: away at Lee County, 5:15 p.m. (junior varsity) and 7 p.m. (varsity)
Tennis: away at Jack Britt, 4 p.m.
Volleyball: home vs. Purnell Swett, 5 p.m. (junior varsity) and 6 p.m. (varsity)
Friday, Sept. 21:
Varsity Football: away at Purnell Swett, 7:30 p.m.
