Atlanta floods scatter several high school football games

By Michael Carvell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The heavy rains have scattered around some of the metro football schedule for this weekend.

Here is a partial list of the new listings, with more games to be decided Thursday:

*Campbell at Roswell, 7:30 p.m. Friday

*South Cobb at McEachern, 1 p.m. Saturday

*Cross Keys at Lovett, 2 p.m. Saturday at Decatur High School

*GAC at Westminster, 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Pius

*Pope at Kell, 7:30 p.m. Saturday

*Cartersville at LaFayette: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

*Alpharetta at Walton, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

*Pebblebrook at Chapel Hill delayed a week to Oct. 2.

Several Cobb schools requested changes because the football teams haven't been able to practice until Thursday. The school district disallowed extracurricular activities on Monday, and then canceled classes for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lovett suffered some of the worst damage, with the nearby Chattahoochee River overflowing onto the school campus. Nearby Pace Academy also had flooded fields, but has an away game Friday.

"We're lucky we have grass, and this is why," Lovett coach Mike Muschamp said. "If we have a turf field, then we just would've lost a half-million or million dollars because of water damage."

Muschamp said school officials will reschedule homecoming for another date, and that he did not know when the field would back in shape. Crews worked on the field on Wednesday as the team practiced in the school gym.

Ralph Swearngin, the GHSA's executive director, said the state's governing body will make decisions strictly based on the best interests of the kids.

"Everybody is surprised that a flood of this magnitude could happen in Georgia without a hurricane or tropical storm," he said. "It's a much bigger problem than high school athletics, and we're doing what we can to get through it."

-- The Georgia High School Football Daily staff contributed to this report