A late-summer heatwave has forced school officials to shuffle the schedule for the first week of high school football in Clark County.
Battle Ground, Mountain View and Washougal had their kickoff times adjusted Friday because of the heat. More could follow.
Battle Ground was scheduled to have the earliest kickoff of the football season, and the Tigers still might accomplish that feat despite making a scheduling change.
Battle Ground is now slated to kick off its Week 1 game against Eisenhower of Yakima at 5:30 p.m. Friday because of the heat. That’s 90 minutes later than it was originally scheduled to start.
The game was originally scheduled to be part of a doubleheader Friday at District Stadium in Battle Ground, with Prairie facing Ridgefield in the late game.
But the Falcons and Spudders are now scheduled to play at 4 p.m. Saturday. That game time was moved to accommodate a request by the Evergreen Football Officials Association.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a high temperature of 100 degrees in Battle Ground on Friday with the peak heat hours coming between 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday’s high temperature is forecasted to be 91 degrees.
By pushing the start time back 90 minutes, officials hope to avoid peak heat hours while still giving Eisenhower time to return to Yakima on Friday night.
Mountain View and Washougal also had their kickoff time pushed back on Friday. The Thunder and Panthers were scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. at McKenzie Stadium as part of a Friday doubleheader.
The game will now kick off at 7 p.m. at Fishback Stadium in Washougal “due to the uncertainty regarding the heat index (Friday) afternoon),” said Cale Piland, athletic director for Evergreen Public Schools.
Vancouver Public Schools had not yet reached a decision on changing the kickoff of the Hudson’s Bay-Napavine football game scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. Friday at Kiggins Bowl. Dave Bennett, athletic director for VPS, said the district will follow WIAA recommendations regarding practices and games and the heat index.
The WIAA guidelines state the schools should consider postponing events to later in the day when the heat index rises above 95 degrees. When it rises above 100 degrees, the recommendation is to postpone events to later in the day.
The Bay-Napavine game is part of a Friday football doubleheader at Kiggins, with Skyview facing Radford of Hawaii in the late game.
Hudson’s Bay is also hosting the 63rd annual Steve Maas Run-A-Ree cross country meet on Friday. High school races are scheduled to start from 4:15 p.m. to 5:50 p.m., with middle school races slated for 6:15 and 6:50 p.m.
Jamie Gonzales, one of Bay’s cross country coaches, said as of Thursday they are planning to going on with the meet as scheduled.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and have safety measures in place to prepare for any heat related issues,” Gonzales said.
Bay athletic director Greg Roberts says that if conditions warrant it on Friday, the meet schedule could be pushed back one hour. And if necessary, the community race and middle school races could be eliminated to push the meet back further in the day, although those decisions have not yet been made.
