Weather forces cancellation of two prep football games

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Clouds hang over Missionary Ridge as severe thunderstorms approach Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Clouds hang over Missionary Ridge as severe thunderstorms approach Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Two prep football season openers were completely washed out by Friday night's severe thunderstorms. The Soddy-Daisy at Red Bank and Marion County at Hixson games were both forced to be canceled due to the fact the fields had not drained well enough to allow them to be playable. Administrators from each of those schools decided it would be unsafe to try to play on Saturday and there was no future date that would allow those games to be rescheduled.

"Due to Red Bank High School not having basic proper field draining capability and facility projects at Soddy-Daisy High, the previously scheduled game between the Lions and Trojans will be cancelled," first-year Lions coach Chris Brown said in a statement early Saturday. "All efforts were extensively exhausted by both administrations and staffs to find a playable solution."

Red Bank administration had turned in a county request in March to have a busted drainage pipe fixed, but it has not yet been repaired. Soddy-Daisy's home field is undergoing construction of a new track surface, which would not allow for that facility to host the game.

Similarly, there was standing water on Hixson's field well after the storms blew through the area late Friday and into early Saturday morning. And with the forecast calling for more storms on Saturday, administrators decided that for the safety of the players, each of those non-region games would not be made up.

Contact Stephen Hargis at 423-757-293 or shargis@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.

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