Footballers vs. Thermometer
Area high schools might be willing to make small concessions to the oppressive heat, but they're not about to cancel Friday evening scrimmages just because the thermometer is at 100 degrees around 3 p.m.
For most area football teams, tonight will be the first opportunity of '07 to run plays against another school's defense and to tackle people in different uniforms. They don't want to pass that up. So they're basically just delaying the start of scrimmages a half-hour to an hour, allowing the sun to set a bit before pounding on each other.
Here are the new start times for the high school scrimmages I was able to track down today:
* The Alamance County Jamboree at Burlington Williams is expected to start at 7 instead of 6, as originally scheduled. Page, Eastern Alamance and Winston-Salem Carver will be participating along with host Williams.
* Grimsley's scrimmages at Davie County have been pushed back from 6:30 to 7. The Whirlies will be competing against Davie, Morganton Freedom and North Iredell.
* The Cummings Kickoff Classic appears to be going on as planned at 5:30. The Cavaliers and Western Alamance will each scrimmage for about an hour against Andrews and Lexington.
* High Point Central AD Mike Cook says that scrimmages at A.J. Simeon Stadium will start at 6:30 instead of 6, with Ragsdale, Eastern Guilford, Parkland and the Northern Guilford JV team also playing.
* Word is the FNB Southeast Football Jamboree at Rockingham County HS will play as scheduled Saturday, no matter how hot it gets. Too much money involved to delay, postpone or cancel. Fortunately, temps are expected to drop to a cool and comfortable 90 degrees by tomorrow. The Jamboree will feature all four Rockingham high schools as well as Northeast Guilford, Southern Guilford, Southwest Guilford and Western Guilford. ... The 4 p.m. scrimmage between Reidsville and Northeast Guilford features what may be the area's two best varsity teams. Not that Jimmy Teague or Tommy Pursley will be showing much of their playbooks.
Word of advice to those planning to attend any of these events: Find shade and lots of water.