By Keith McShea
This fall’s high school postseason is going to be different than any other. Just like the storm that caused it.
Section VI and the Erie County Interscholastic Conference joined the Buffalo Public Schools and the Monsignor Martin Association by retooling their schedules due to the myriad school closings caused by last week’s devastating snowstorm.
With most of its member schools not planning to return to classes until next week, the ECIC effectively canceled all of its remaining regular season contests in soccer, volleyball and field hockey. The seasons were to end this week (soccer) or next week (volleyball and field hockey).
Also, at the ECIC’s request, Section VI pushed back the beginning of sectional play to Friday, Oct. 27. The original sectional starting dates were Oct. 23 (boys and girls soccer), Oct. 25 (girls volleyball) and Oct. 26 (field hockey). The Oct. 30 start of boys volleyball sectionals was unaffected.
“This gives those schools going through this disaster time to recuperate, time for their towns to clean up — and then start thinking sports,” said ECIC President Jim Biryla, the principal at Holland. “Right now fields are unplayable. Then there are referees, how many are available? How many are without power? It’s the whole enchilada. The best thing to do for those schools going through this tragic storm is give them time to recuperate.”
Section VI also modified its sectional seeding procedure, which is based on a power points rating determined by a teams’ league schedule. Usually the number of power points is divided by a team’s total scheduled league games to determine a rating; now a team’s total number of league games played will be used.
ECIC teams can continue to play games if they are able to; however, those games will not count towards the standings.
A sampling of other schedule changes:
*The ECIC golf championships tournament, originally scheduled for Oct. 16 (and then Oct. 23) at Tan Tara, is now Oct. 30 at Springville.
*The ECIC girls tennis singles tournament has been canceled and the singles representatives for the Section VI tournament will be determined by the league. Biryla said an attempt will be made to hold an ECIC doubles tournament, but if not, the ECIC will also determine those representatives. (The singles tournament was originally scheduled for Oct. 13-14, then was to be held as part of a doubles tournament, Oct. 20-21-22.)
*The ECIC girls swimming meet has been pushed back a week and will be held at Sweet Home. The diving competition will be Nov. 2, the swimming on Nov. 3. Winners and sectional representatives will be determined by their times (instead of heats and finals, there will just be heats with times dictating places).
*The ECIC cross country meet remains Oct. 28, but has been moved from Alden to East Aurora.
In other scheduling changes:
*The Section VI cross country championships will still be held Nov. 3, but has been moved from from Elma Meadows Golf Course to Long Point State Park in Bemus Point.
*The Niagara Frontier League, which also canceled the remainder of its soccer season, rescheduled some volleyball matches, swim meets and cross country meets. Of note are Tuesday’s volleyball doubleheader of Kenmore East at Kenmore West (4:30 p.m. girls, 6 p.m. boys) and the move of the NFL swim meet to Nov. 2-4 (one week later than scheduled).
In football, several dates have been changed for the Week Eight lineup.
*The T-NT rivalry football game is 6 p.m. tonight at Clint Small Stadium. There will be shuttle service to and from the stadium from three park-and-ride locations: Tops on Niagara Street, the Tonawanda High parking lot and the Big Lots parking lot on Young Street. Shuttle service provided by Rainbow Transportation’s yellow school buses starts at 4:30 p.m. and runs for about an hour after the game.
*The Depew at Lancaster rivalry game has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. Monday.
*St. Joe’s is playing its scheduled game at Niagara Falls tonight at 7:30 p.m.
*The Class B South title — and home-field advantage in the Oct. 28 sectional semifinals — will be determined at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when Lackawanna plays at East Aurora.
*The Sweet Home-Starpoint Class A North game will be played at 2 p.m. Sunday at UB Stadium.
*Pioneer and Jamestown, two teams whose Week Eight opponents were unable to play, will meet at Jamestown at 2 p.m. Saturday. Canceled were Pioneer at Amherst and Frontier at Jamestown.
*Clarence’s game at Lockport at 2 p.m. Saturday has been moved to Medina.
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(c) 2006 Buffalo News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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