High school football: Six Hall County schools move games to Thursday in anticipation of bad weather

Sep. 26—With the threat of heavy rain in the forecast for the end of the week, six of Hall County's football programs have moved games up to Thursday.

On Monday, Flowery Branch (2-3, 0-1 Region 8-5A), North Hall (2-3, 2-1 Region 8-4A), East Hall (2-3, 0-3 Region 8-4A), Chestatee (1-4, 1-2 Region 8-4A), Cherokee Bluff (2-3, 2-1 Region 8-4A) and West Hall (1-4, 0-1 Region 7-3A) decided to play a day earlier with Hurricane Ian becoming a growing threat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Storms are expected to reach northeast Georgia with heavy bands of rain by the end of the week.

Yet, four days out, it's still anyone's guess how intense the storms will actually be once they reach our area.

West Hall coach Krofton Montgomery said he doesn't mind going to battle in rainy weather, but knows it would not be good for revenue from tickets at the gates.

"The main thing is you don't want to have a game with 25-35 mph wind, thunderstorms and delays," Montgomery said. "Nobody is going to sit though that."

Already, schools in south Georgia have started moving games up to Tuesday and Wednesday.

West Hall and Flowery Branch were the first to make the decision to move games up a day.

By the middle of the afternoon Monday, six of the seven programs in the Hall County schools district made the decision to move games to Thursday.

That leaves Johnson (0-5) as the only one left with a Friday matchup, traveling to play Lakeside-Atlanta.

Thursday's games

West Hall vs. Gilmer

Flowery Branch vs. Clarke Central

North Hall at North Oconee

East Hall vs. East Forsyth

Chestatee at Madison County

Cherokee Bluff vs. Cedar Shoals

Friday's games

Gainesville at Lanier

Riverside Military vs. Druid Hills

Johnson at Lakeside-Atlanta

Lakeview Academy at Bethlehem Christian

Lanier Christian at Notre Dame Academy