White hat VaPreps Honorable Mention
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According to the Roanoke TImes, the citation from the Handbook is the following.
68-3-1 Postponed or Suspended/Interrupted Games-Postponed or suspended games must be rescheduled for the same evening or the afternoon of the next calendar date, except for Sundays and except for extenuating circumstances approved by the district chairman if both schools involved are within the same district; or by the three (3) Executive Committee representatives and the two (2) region AD's that will provide section information if the section is involved. If it is not a district or sectional contest, the VHSL Executive Director will rule on the extenuating circumstances. Friday games would be rescheduled for Saturday; Saturday for Monday; and Monday for Tuesday.
68-3-2 All make-up games must be concluded by Tuesday preceding the fi rst regional play-off date. Games not concluded by that day will be counted as a loss for both teams. If two schools cannot agree on a make-up date, the VHSL Executive Director shall set the date. A school may choose to forfeit only if approved by the VHSL Executive Director.
Here's the meat of the story. I understand how the Washington sniper was a crazy situation, but in many parts of the state, the weather the weekend that game was scheduled was supposed to be exceptionally trecherous.
The Oct. 2 game originally was scheduled to be played in Hillsville, but with heavy rain that day and more in the forecast, the two schools agreed to move the game to Salem Stadium.
However, the switch was nixed when the city of Salem set aside adjacent Salem Civic Center as a potential shelter for possible flood victims.
“The forecast came out as horrific and they were going to use the civic center as a regional evacuation point for the whole Roanoke Valley,” Salem athletic director Chris King said. “Basically, the city of Salem shut us down and said we couldn’t play on Friday night.”
King said Salem offered to reschedule the game for the following Monday — Oct. 5 — even though the Spartans had a scheduled game three days later in Blacksburg.
Carroll County, which had an Oct. 9 game against Hidden Valley, did not accept the offer to play that Monday.
“We were busy preparing for Hidden Valley,” Carroll County Principal Chuck Thompson said.
King said he then called VHSL Associate Director Tom Dolan to see if Salem would suffer any negative consequences if the game was not played. Both Salem and Carroll County were informed that no forfeit would be enforced and each team would divide its VHSL Rating Scale points by nine games to determine its average for postseason qualification and seeding.
Things changed last week after Group 4A West chairman John Brewer of Dominion High School informed King that Rule 68-3-1 in the VHSL Handbook calls for both teams to be given a loss if a football game is not made up by the Tuesday of the first week of regional playoffs unless one of the teams opts to forfeit.
Dolan said an exception might be granted only in an extreme circumstance such as the Washington-area sniper shootings in 2002, or if the game in question was scheduled for the final week of the regular season.
The VHSL official admitted there was some confusion about Salem’s initial inquiry into the situation.
“That’s my fault,” Dolan said. “I didn’t ask enough questions. They probably didn’t give me enough information that would have helped me trigger this 60-year-old mind of mine. It was basically a miscommunication.”
King said Salem offered to play the game either next Monday or Tuesday, Nov. 9 or Nov. 10.
The Salem AD said the Spartans rescinded their offer to play Nov. 10 after considering the possible implications of a loss to the Cavaliers, as unlikely as such an upset might seem given the Spartans’ 77-14 win over Hidden Valley and Carroll’s 43-14 loss to the Titans.
“If we lose to Carroll County on that Tuesday, we’ve got to turn around and play a playoff game that Friday,” King said. “We won’t get a bye. We need to do it Monday.”
Also, any game played early next week might have held up the final VHSL playoff points ratings, not just for Salem but also for every opponent of both the Spartans and Carroll County.
King said Carroll County — which ends its season at Patrick Henry on Friday — initially accepted the offer to play the game Monday before informing Salem 30 minutes later that it would forfeit.
“We would have to play Patrick Henry on Friday and then turn around on Monday and play Salem,” Thompson said. “The deciding factor for us was player safety.”
By forfeiting a home game — even if it had been played in Salem — Carroll County also lost out on collecting the gate receipts, minus expenses.
By receiving a forfeit, Salem’s rating in the Group 4A West standings actually dropped from what would have been 30.38 to 29.67. The Spartans stand third behind No. 1 Jefferson Forest and John Champe and would have been No. 3 this week regardless.
“If we’re fortunate enough to win Friday night we’ll probably be [No. 3],” King said. “Forfeit, or whether you play the game and win, it would have worked out the same either way.
“What’s best for everybody involved? What’s fair? I don’t want to be given anything that’s not done the right way. We should have played them anyhow, but it will all work out for the best.”
