Hurricane Sandy Makes State-Tournament Prep Difficult For East Coast A.D.s

The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.), Joseph Rea

http://www.nj.com/hssports/blog/fieldhockey/index.ssf/2012/10/high_school_sports_athletic_directors_prepare_as_hurricane_sandy_threatens_schedules.html

The impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy is expected to result in the postponement of all NJSIAA tournament games scheduled today and likely tomorrow and may push back games until at least Wednesday.

Schools are expected to closed around New Jersey as people understandably prepare for how they will stay safe.

Athletic directors deal with those concerns, not just for themselves and their families, but for the students, as they try to plan around Hurricane Sandy, an extreme case of the weather-related problems the administrators so often face.

“Our first concern is with the safety of the kids, the athletes,” East Brunswick athletic director Frank Noppenberger said. “But it’s just the frustration that everything is set; the refs, field usage and parents make arrangements, and then you have to reschedule and maybe it doesn’t work out for somebody.”

Plenty of fall sports in New Jersey are set to begin or have already begun their NJSIAA tournaments, including boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball. But Summit athletic director Michael Sandor expressed confidence the schedule will be okay even if there are postponements, partly because of the number of alternate sites available for games.

“The worst thing that can happen is you play back-to-back, and that is a very rare occasion to do that in a state tournament,” Sandor said. “If you have to change the venue, you change the venue.”

In a different situation, one less serious than a hurricane, such as a rainy day, Sandor said he is not quick to start making schedule adjustments.

“I wait until it’s necessary to make changes or cancellations,” Sandor said. “Just because you never know where you’re going to be able to play games or events.”

Noppenberger said he looks at the lack of practice time as something that could determine when to reschedule games. With Hurricane Sandy, not only will games be postponed, but students will miss some important practice time in preparation for state games.

“You don’t want your kids going into an event without two days of practice,” Noppenberger said. “The athletic directors and schools are all for the same thing. We want the kids to practice first.”

The NJSIAA Tournament has been underway for almost a week in field hockey, while the boys soccer playoff games were originally scheduled to start today. Some boys games were played over the weekend, just one way athletic directors are trying to work around the hurricane and get their games played.

Ultimately, though, it all comes back to safety for these administrators.

“Our paramount concern is overall safety for athletes,” Todd Smith, the AD at Montclair Kimberley, said. “We make our decisions on whether games will occur based on that. Also, if schools are closed down, games do not occur.”

The timing is also not ideal for the teams as they try and build and maintain momentum through the state tournament toward potential state titles.

“Unfortunately, all the teams are sort of in their strides,” Smith said. “And to not go for a few days hurts those kids.”