Inclement weather puts high school games in limbo
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Mother Nature has done its best to disrupt Section VI sports in the Town of Amherst.

Thanks to two feet of wet snow late last Thursday night and Friday morning which left down trees and power lines across Erie County, all Week Seven football games have been postponed until further notice.

The aftermath of the unprecedented storm forced the Town of Amherst Police Department to enforce a driving ban in the town, which was changed to a travel advisory on Monday night, and for superintendents in the Amherst, Sweet Home and Williamsville districts to close school through Friday.

"I've been doing this for 16 years and have never had a football game cancelled," said East football coach Henry Fumerelle. "I was in one down in Pioneer six or seven years ago when we had a lightning delay and we were talking about coming back on Sunday to do it but we got it in."

Section VI President Chuck Funke said in an e-mail that the Football Committee has decided all Week Eight football games will be played as scheduled this weekend. Town of Amherst football games will feature Pioneer at Amherst and Williamsville South at Lew-Port on Friday and Niagara Wheatfield at Williamsville North, Williamsville East at Grand Island and Starpoint at Sweet Home on Saturday.

It will be determined which Section VI games from Week 7 still need to be played, Funke said in the e-mail.

"Only those games for teams that have playoff implications (top two positions) will be rescheduled," Funke said in the e-mail. "They will be played Tuesday, Oct. 24 or Wednesday, Oct. 25."

The Football Committee will notify teams on Sunday if their Week Seven game will be rescheduled.

Week Seven games yet to be determined are Albion at East, Iroquois at Amherst, Lewiston-Porter at Sweet Home, both homecoming games, North at Kenmore West and South at Cardinal O'Hara.

New York State law mandates a minimum of four days between high school football games.

The East, Amherst and Sweet Home games have playoff implications. East and Amherst need to play and win both league games to keep their Federation playoff chances alive.

Sweet Home can clinch with a win over Starpoint. If Sweet Home loses, Starpoint would advance because it would have league victories over Sweet Home and East.

North is still mathematically alive for a consolation bowl berth.

Amherst, Sweet Home and the Williamsville schools might be able to practice on Friday because of a previously scheduled staff development day but was not determined before The Bee went to press.

All other Section VI sports have huge scheduling problems. Boys and girls soccer are scheduled to have seeding meetings for playoffs on Saturday. The girls volleyball seeding meeting is slated for Monday, Oct. 23. Field hockey follows on Oct. 24. Boys volleyball seeds for playoffs on Oct. 26. All have several league games remaining.

A meeting between the Section VI Executive Committee and ECIC Athletics Directors to decide whether or not to move back seeding meetings will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Section VI girls soccer chair and East

girls coach Chris Durr said because of regional and state playoff schedules, league games, if they are not played at some point this week, cannot be rescheduled.

"They're not going to move regionals or states so it's up to us whether we squash the rest of the league season and go right into playoffs next week or back up the seeding meeting," said Durr. "I'm not in favor of that because what happens if we get snow next week? I'm obviously at the mercy of the Section VI office and the executive director and what they want to do. My recommendation is see what you can get in this week and then whatever we go into playoffs in, we go into playoffs in. If it's only 10 games, it's 10 games."

"I just want the kids playing," he continued. "We probably won't play until Thursday (Oct. 26) in the playoffs so that would mean we would have an over two-week layoff."

East, 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in Western New York large schools, remained undefeated last week with a 3-1 win at North Tonawanda on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Rachel Piemonte scored two goals; Jenny Griffin tallied the other.

The ECIC girls tennis singles tournament, postponed from last week at the Village Glen Tennis and Fitness Center, has been rescheduled for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. inside the Glen with finals possibly at 2 p.m. Friday. The ECIC doubles tournament will be rescheduled for this weekend, also inside the Glen.

The ECIC golf championships, originally slated for this past Monday, has been rescheduled for this coming Monday at 9 a.m. at Tan Tara Country Club.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com