For the second straight week, a weekend snowstorm has played havoc with the Maine high school postseason football schedule.
Saturday’s snowfall and slippery conditions on the roads in southern and central Maine forced the postponement of all three Saturday state championship games.
Two of the three are slated for Monday afternoon while the third, the Class B game between Belfast and Wells, is set for Tuesday afternoon at Lewiston High School’s Franklin Athletic Complex.
All three games are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
On Monday, Class A foes Gardiner and Noble of Berwick will square off for the state title at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. Foxcroft Academy and Lisbon of Lisbon Falls will meet for the Class C crown at Lawrence High’s Keyes Field in Fairfield.
“It was really disappointing because the kids were so keyed up. It’s like waiting for Christmas day to come. You wonder when it’s finally going to come,” said Wells coach Ed McDonough, whose team was the lone one among the west champs not postponed last week.
“I think the toughest thing about this is the cold weather we’re in for. We’ll be playing a lot later in the day,” said Arthers. “And I think the crowd may be smaller with it being a mid-week game.”
The three-day wait is especially tough for Belfast and Foxcroft, which take the whole week off for Thanksgiving vacation.
“It doesn’t hurt me in basketball, but in football, we did have some kids who had travel plans for the Thanksgiving break who had to do some quick rescheduling,” said Butch Richards, an assistant football coach and head boys basketball coach at Belfast.
Most of the six teams held light practices on Sunday. The players did some stretching and reviewed game tapes.
“Our A.D. said we could practice if we wanted. We’ll certainly be going outside Monday because our gym is booked solid with basketball practices,” said McDonough.
Lewiston athletic director Fern Masse said there were three reasons for rescheduling the B game for Tuesday rather than Monday.
“One reason was the forecast and the fact it wasn’t supposed to be much better on Monday, and the other was to make sure we got the field ready. [The Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department] indicated it would be tough to get people in on Monday to get it ready since they’re understaffed with people on vacation,” said Masse. “Plus, they also predicted that travelling was going to be tough. The travelling was the most worrisome thing.”
Noble athletic director Peter Meagher had no problems with the decision to postpone because the southern Maine area got heavy, wet snow that caused travel problems, but he admitted two straight weeks of postponements are causing problems.
“We should have started practice for wrestling and other sports last Monday, but no one really wanted to go. They all wanted to go to the game, so we started a day late,” said Meagher. “We’re supposed to start basketball practice this week, but we’ll probably push that back a day too.”
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