Cancellation of W’burg’s Sept. 11 football game was a shame

It was sad to hear about the cancellation of the Williamsburg High School football game on Sept. 11 for multiple reasons.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Every year students across the state bust their butts to get ready to play a game they love. As Head Football Coach Jerry Herron noted a few weeks ago, his players have done everything that coaches and administrators have asked of them in order to be given a chance to play this year.

If this were a regular season with lots of games, then the cancelation of the season opener wouldn’t be a big deal, but it is very doubtful in my opinion that the entire fall sports season gets completed this year due to COVID-19.

This makes every game a lot more special.

For those wondering why the News Journal listed the Williamsburg-Frankfort game in our football preview section in last Wednesday’s edition, the simple answer to that question is that no one from the school bothered to inform us about the schedule change even though the game was cancelled late in the prior week.

We only found out after reading a post about it on Facebook Friday morning, and then began making inquiries about it.

The reason we were given about not being told about the cancellation was that Williamsburg was trying unsuccessfully to find a replacement game until last Thursday.

“They didn’t feel like they would be safe travelling here for the game,” Herron told News Journal Sports Editor Trevor Sherman about noon Friday.

Williamsburg Superintendent Tim Melton said the travel time was the main concern for the Frankfort football team.

It seems strange that Frankfort just so happened to find a replacement game on a week’s notice with a team that is located only a 30-minute drive away in Shelby County.

How convenient!

Frankfort has played locally before and was well aware of the two-hour travel time. Frankfort school officials have known about COVID-19 for several months like the rest of us.

If they had concerns about their team travelling that long due to COVID-19, then they should have cancelled this game weeks ago, giving Williamsburg a realistic chance at scheduling another opponent rather than backing out of the game with a week’s notice.

As it happened though, Frankfort cost the Williamsburg kids the opportunity to play what may be one of their few games this season.

Let me touch on two other sports-related points before I conclude.

Because the falls sports season is unlikely to be played to completion, I would encourage every local team in all falls sports to consider scheduling senior night at their next home game instead of doing it at the last home game of the season. This way at least these kids won’t miss out on that honor if the season ends abruptly.

Lastly, I don’t ordinarily mention comments made on the News Journal’s Facebook posts, but there was one the other day, which I think made a really valid point.

The Facebook post in question concerned COVID-19 restrictions for the Corbin High School football games, which will be streamed live on the Internet for $20 each.

Reader Sonia Jackson noted a valid point about the high cost being too much for a lot of people, especially some students, and she suggested having the broadcast class do it for free.

It is admirable that a group is live streaming these games, and I salute the school board for trying to broaden access to these games given the 15 percent capacity limitations.

However, Sonia has a good point about the price. Overall, Corbin is a pretty prosperous place, and I think we all sometimes forget just how many less fortunate people live here, especially less fortunate children.

Sonia also makes a good point that all of our local school districts should consider, which is that this would be a really good opportunity for a high school broadcast class.