By Christian Malone
September 01, 2007 02:22 am
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VALDOSTA — The Wildcats and the Beetdiggers were ready to play Friday night. But Mother Nature wouldn’t let them.
Valdosta High’s season opener with Jordan High on Friday was postponed due to lightning and rain. The game will instead take place this morning, kicking off at 10 a.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.
“We wanted to play tonight,” Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin said. “We were ready, they were ready. We were dealt a different hand, and there’s nothing we can do about it. The next best available time was (Saturday) at 10 a.m.”
The game never kicked off. Both teams went on the field and warmed up, but the storm rolled in around 7:30 p.m., and the players remained in their locker rooms until the game was called.
Valdosta and Jordan will have to play in the morning because Valdosta State’s football team plays Albany State on the same field at 7 p.m.
The teams tried to get the game in. They monitored the weather all evening. But the team’s lightning meter kept indicating there was lightning in the area, so the teams were kept off the field. Each time lightning entered the area, it delayed the game another 15 minutes.
Finally, at around 9:30 p.m., with lightning still in the area, the decision was made to postpone the game until today.
“They made the decision based on what was best for everybody involved — the football players, the band members, the cheerleaders,” Tomberlin said after the game was called. “All we can do now is try to get some rest tonight, eat good, get up and be ready to go tomorrow.
“I felt like we were mentally ready to play football. But we’ll be ready in the morning.”
The Jordan team, which flew in from Sandy, Utah, was spending the night in Valdosta anyway. The team will play this morning, then head to Atlanta. They were scheduled to watch the Braves play the New York Mets today at Turner Field, but with that game starting at 3:55 p.m., they may miss an inning or two if they go.
“They were really good. They told us they’d do whatever we decided to,” Tomberlin said.
“They have to leave tomorrow, and they probably have motel accommodations in Atlanta tomorrow, so 10:00 made more sense. They were supposed to go to a Braves game.”
Fans attending the game this morning will have to present their ticket stubs to get into the game. Those without tickets will have to purchase another ticket to get into the game.
Rainouts are extremely rare in Valdosta. Longtime Valdosta fan David Waller, who has missed only seven Wildcat games in the last 60 seasons, says this is the first time he can remember a Valdosta game ever getting postponed.
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