LOCAL SPORTS ON PAUSE: Fields flooded as all local games still postponed indefinitely

Historic flooding from Hurricane Helene engulfed athletic facilities along the Catawba River in Morganton, suspending all local sports seasons from the high school and middle school level to adult and youth recreation sports.

The damage was perhaps most striking at Freedom High School, where last Friday and Saturday the side of campus closest to the river — including the football field, field house, baseball field, and driving range — were submerged by nearly 10 feet of flood water.

Freedom athletic director Rob Scott on Monday said the field house was cleared out prior to the flooding, meaning computers and all football gear were saved.

“The building itself is a swampy mess,” said Scott, who compared the storm damage to the 2004 Morganton flood coupled with Hurricane Hugo winds.

“Stuff that was on the floor is on the ceiling, and stuff that was on the ceiling is on the floor, and there’s mud everywhere,” he added, “but all necessary gear was gotten out.”

Several trees were down around the FHS campus on Monday — as they were at most county schools — as a result of the high winds with the storm, but none had fallen on facilities at FHS. The water had subsided by early Sunday morning as the river receded back into its banks, but Scott said no determination has yet been made on where Patriots’ home football games would be played the rest of the season.

The baseball, football, and softball fields at Walter Johnson Middle School also sustained flooding with several feet of water.

The 12 baseball and softball fields spanning both Catawba Meadows Park and Shuey Park were also flooded Friday, as were the four fields at the Catawba River Soccer Complex.

The Morganton Parks and Recreation Department announced that all city parks are closed until further notice, meaning that all adult softball and youth flag football and soccer seasons are also suspended until further notice.

The Burke County Parks and Recreation Department has also suspended all athletic activities, including youth football and outdoor soccer, including practices until further notice.

Those five rec sports’ seasons had just gotten underway, with the exception of county outdoor soccer, which had been slated for its first games last Thursday just prior to the storm.

BCPS schools have been closed for the last seven school days and announced Thursday that schools would be closed next Monday and Tuesday, postponing all local high school and middle school events starting Thursday, Sept. 26 through at least this coming Wednesday, Oct. 9.

Moving forward slowly

BCPS on Wednesday announced that high schools may hold optional practices for all fall sports beginning Thursday.

BCPS public relations officer Cheryl Shuffler said the optional practice days run from Thursday through Saturday and then resume Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 7-8, with schools being out those days as well.

The practices are for high school teams only, with middle school teams still in a holding pattern.

The East Burke High School Athletics page on Facebook first shared the news Wednesday shortly after noon. The post reads, in part: “If you are safe to travel, we encourage all student-athletes to try and attend (the optional practices). We have not received word from the state as far as an extension of the season or when games will be made up. We will continue to update you as we know more. If you have any questions, please reach out to your coaches individually.”

All fall sports at EBHS except for girls golf were set to hold practices both Thursday and Friday.

The timeline for local teams’ return to games, however, is still unclear.

EBHS had announced Tuesday its plans to hold this week’s football game at Newton-Conover on Saturday but on Wednesday reversed course and said there would be no game this week. That leaves both EB and Draughn entering next week with two scheduled football contests to make up, while Freedom was idle on Sept. 27 and has just this week’s game to attempt to reschedule.

Homecoming festivities had already been pushed back to Oct. 4 in Valdese and Oct. 18 in Icard, but Draughn’s homecoming was not held this week, and no homecoming date has yet been re-established.

The only two prep football contests in conferences of which county schools are members to be held last week involved schools in the eight-team Catawba Valley 2A Conference, which based on its geography, figures to be far less impacted than the other three local conferences.

The league spans Gamewell and Icard to Catawba and Lincoln counties to the south and east.

“Us and West Caldwell were affected worst in the conference,” EB athletic director Chip Watts said, “and probably West Caldwell a bit worse than us. But we’re reaching out to other schools (outside the conference), and it’s awful. Avery County is a mess with mudslides and roads out. We’ve reached out to Pisgah and Tuscola (in Haywood County) to offer them whatever we can as neighbors, host a game here if they want to later in the season or whatever it may be.

“… It’s so sad. We’re talking about people who have lost their homes, their businesses, people who have died. The mountain schools were so horribly affected.”

The other three local leagues — the Mountain Foothills 7 1A/2A (Brevard, Hendersonville), Northwestern 3A/4A (Ashe County, Watauga), and particularly the Western Highlands 1A/2A (Avery, Madison, Mitchell, Mountain Heritage, Owen, Rosman) — each feature schools in higher elevations that suffered greater impacts from the storm.

There has been no information available from Draughn as to how and when the WHC plans to resume fall sports; DHS athletic director Eric Shehan could not be reached for comment this week.

The NWC issued a statement Tuesday saying that there would be no athletic events all week, until at least after Saturday, Oct. 5.

“How this affects the remaining conference schedules will depend on decisions from the NCHSAA (Board of Directors) and local school systems,” the statement read.

The MF7 — which also contains three schools in Rutherford County, which was affected by flooding from Lake Lure and along the Broad River — also has not announced when sports might resume.

Patton athletic director Lee Crawford said early discussions have not centered around sports resuming.

“I’ve talked to some of our ADs in the conference but nothing about rescheduling yet,” he said. “Our conference is all in the biggest impact zone so right now our biggest concern is recovery for those communities.”

The NCHSAA on Monday announced that its board of directors would convene via video conference to discuss potential changes to its fall sports’ championship schedules to accommodate the areas affected in the western part of the state.

“We know this storm has brought significant challenges and hardships,” NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker told HighSchoolOT.com. “While we know everyone (across the state) was not impacted, it is difficult to plan without at least having our western board members at the table to give personal perspectives. Until such time, the NCHSAA staff cannot answer the questions being posed relative to finishing regular seasons as well as the impact on all playoffs.

“To any of our ‘impacted’ colleagues who can access this email, please remember that you are not alone during this difficult time. We stand with you and are here to support you in any way we can. As you assess needs, whether it’s assistance, resources, or simply someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.”

Also locally, North Carolina School for the Deaf has announced that its 80th annual homecoming festivities planned for this Saturday, Oct. 5, were canceled.

At the middle school level, all five of Burke County’s schools and both McDowell County schools make up the Foothills Athletic Conference.

FAC 2024-25 president Mitchell McGuire, who is AD at East Burke Middle, said that as of Tuesday morning he had only spoken with ADs at Heritage and West McDowell and not the other four schools (East McDowell, Liberty, Table Rock, Walter Johnson).

“I think everyone would like to try to reschedule (the games postponed last week and last week) and get back to normalcy as soon as possible,” McGuire said. “The issues are we’re already halfway through seasons with not tons of wiggle room to add playing dates at the end, and if we reschedule contests between now and then with more games per week than normal, finding officials may be tough especially for soccer.

“Doug (Webb, AD at Heritage) and I talked about maybe playing some football games on Saturdays. We do have the option to play two football games per week in extreme circumstances, and I would certainly say this falls under that. This is unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

McGuire said Heritage and EBMS received minimal storm damage. However, in addition to the Walter Johnson flooding, McGuire said that West McDowell’s practice football field and baseball field experienced some flood damage as well, noting that “McDowell and parts of Burke are far worse than what we’ve got” in the eastern end of the county.

McGuire said one possible plan moving forward might be canceling all FAC fall postseason tournaments and simply getting in as much of teams’ regular-season schedules as possible.

Still digging out

In addition to EBHS’ efforts, other local schools have also offered their assistance to those in Burke and surrounding counties.

Draughn High School football coaches over the weekend were out in the Valdese area helping cut trees off driveways and more.

Also, according to the Draughn Wildcats Football page on Facebook, New Hanover High School in Wilmington is sending supplies to the school today (Oct. 5).

“Anyone needing specific things can let us know, and if we get that, we will help our community first,” according to the post. “Anything not needed will be sent up the mountain to other areas.”

DHS coaches and support staff also headed to Avery County High School on Thursday “with (three or four) truckloads of necessities,” according to the post, which went on to state: “We will make another run this weekend and will take up any donations anybody has.”

And Table Rock Middle School is accepting donated supplies — particularly water, diapers, wipes, and formula — to deliver to those affected by the storm in both Burke and McDowell counties.

At the rec level, the Collett Street Recreation Center, the Mountain View Recreation Center, and the Morganton Aquatics Center, all in Morganton, as well as the Valdese Community Center and the R.O. Huffman Center in Drexel all re-opened Wednesday.

The Morganton Parks and Recreation Department says all city parks remain closed. The Valdese Parks and Recreation Department said as of Wednesday, only Children’s Park was open and advised folks to remain off of the greenway and out of Valdese Lakeside Park and McGalliard Falls Park at this time.

“We hope to have them back open by the end of the week,” according to a Facebook post from the Town of Valdese page.

The gym, pool, showers, grill, and bowling alley at the Valdese Community Center are all fully functional.