There were tropical systems that disrupted Galveston County high school football, and then there was Hurricane Rita.
The cliché of district play representing the start of a new season isn’t so trite anymore, considering all five of the county’s District 23-4A members and Hitchcock in 26-2A will begin league games after a two-week layoff during and following the area’s first mandatory evacuation in advance of Rita.
No coach, player or fan likes to lose games. But Rita put football itself — not to mention the whole county — at stake with winds that at one point were some of the strongest ever recorded in a hurricane.
But just over a day before projected landfall at or near Galveston, Rita weakened, veered north and left a trail of damage along the Texas-Louisiana border. Football programs from Beaumont to Lake Charles, La., felt a much larger impact than those here.
“I think we can all consider ourselves very lucky,” Texas City coach Tim Finn said. “It’s unfortunate for some other areas, but lucky for us in Galveston County. It could have been a lot worse.
“We lost a game. Some other teams are looking at losing a season.”
The Stings will resume next week against Channelview, the lone 23-4A member to play a game this week, and the other four district members will play again next week after a two-week off period.
“I don’t think it’s something anybody expected,” Finn said. “But we’re all in the same boat, I guess. It’s going to be interesting.”
Texas City wound up losing a game against Forest Brook. It’s the second time in four years the Stingarees have lost their nondistrict match with the Jaguars due to tropical weather. Tropical Storm Fay washed out their 2002 game.
La Marque lost what was planned to be its homecoming game against Smiley. That series has also had a tropical cancellation before in 1998, for Tropical Storm Frances. And many Cougar fans remember a highly anticipated game against Fort Bend Willowridge in 1988 that fell victim to a scare from Hurricane Gilbert, which — like Rita — spared Galveston County.
Friendswood planned last week to make up its game against Crosby this week. Then the schools cancelled. Dickinson and C.E. King opted not to play, wiping out the second game in two weeks for the Gators. Santa Fe never played Dayton as scheduled last week.
Teams received their players during the past week after returning from the evacuation. La Marque coach Bryan Erwin said his program had a plan in place to keep the team together to some degree as it scattered into the highways for the run from Rita.
“We stayed in contact with our coaches and kids throughout the evacuation,” Erwin said. “The assistant coaches stayed in contact with their position players, and I stayed in contact with our assistant coaches. When we got together Monday we got ahold of everybody and we had 95 percent of the team Tuesday for practice.”
Resuming play hinged on the storm sparing the county and its sports venues. Rita hardly left a mark on local high school stadiums and gymnasiums. But athletes and coaches were among the millions stranded in the parking lots that bottlenecked Houston-area freeways became in the rush to get away from Category 3 storm winds and the resulting destruction.
Rita put the brakes on football last week, snuffing district games in leagues of seven or more teams such as 24-5A. Other schools not in district play opted not to compete this week as some teams never held a full squad practice until Thursday.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t get to play,” Erwin said. “But in some ways, it may be a blessing.”
Ball High, in the seven-team 24-5A, played Clear Brook on what was supposed to be its bye date Friday. The Golden Tornadoes will be spared the grueling task of remaking three or more district contests in a week or two.
“We’re lucky,” Ball coach Ron Holmes said after the 17-3 victory over Brook. “You know the Aldine schools are playing four games (in two weeks). We’re very fortunate.”
Normally, University Interscholastic League rules require at least five days between football games. But the body that governs most of the competition between Texas high schools shortened the requirement to four days for district games affected by Rita. The UIL made no concessions for nondistrict games.
Even by those losing games due to the storm, it was understandable.
“I think the fact we’re not in district play … when you’re in district play, you’ve got to get those games in there, somehow,” Finn said. “But for the safety of our kids, I think we’re lucky not to be in the same position.”
After last week’s running was all done on the road — and much of it was more crawling than running — there’s plenty of lost time in conditioning for players and coaches to make up.
“It was a shock to the system the first day we got together,” Finn said. “But the next day we responded real well; it won’t be like starting the first of the season as far as getting in shape. We had some good days of practice this week. We were able to get most of our kids Tuesday, a lot more Wednesday and then we were at full strength Thursday.”
If anything, it gave coaches preparing to start district some extra scouting time.
“We’re going to start breaking down Santa Fe and start our game planning,” Erwin said. “We’ve got a good idea of what they like to do; we’ll look closer at what they’re doing this year.”
Rita dealt La Marque an indirect blow through the evacuation. Running back J.J. Mullins will miss at least the first half of district play due to an ankle injury he suffered during an accident while the county emptied in anticipation of Rita.
“We’ll miss him,” Erwin said. “But now we have to get it done without him.”
In Santa Fe, coach Joe Krauskopf and the Indians are doing the same as the Cougars — getting ready for Friday.
“We’ve got film … and we’ve broke down film the last couple days,” Krauskopf said. “We’re ready to go to work on Friday.”
The Indians were to play Dayton last week and have an open date this week, but Krauskopf said his team will be ready to play La Marque to end what will then be a three-week period without football.
“Everyone came back in good spirits, and everyone’s ready to work,” Krauskopf said. The Indians held their first full team practice Wednesday.
The Cougars will open 23-4A play at Indian Stadium. Texas City will be at Channelview, and Friendswood will be at Dickinson.
