School district maintenance personnel worked to make Coy Burnett Field playable Friday, October 16. Photo by the Tehachapi News.
Posted by John Nelson, The Tehachapi News, on October 16, 2015 Perfect Storm Forces Homecoming Postponement
Football Games Canceled
Tehachapi High School has been forced to postpone most of its homecoming activities for one week due to heavy rains, unsafe travel conditions and the prospect for more storms to come, athletic director Pat Snyder said. “No way in this weather,” Snyder said. “It's postponed for one week.”
The decision to postpone homecoming was made Thursday evening, Oct. 15. The game itself, scheduled for Friday night, Oct. 16, at Coy Burnett Field against East Bakersfield, was canceled that morning.
“The buses were going to have trouble getting up here from Bakersfield due to road closures, and the forecast called for more flash flood warnings this afternoon,” Snyder said. “Put all that together and it formed the perfect storm.” In addition, Snyder said, the Red Cross had taken over dressing room facilities at the field to use as shelters.
Originally, the Warriors had hoped to reschedule the game for Saturday morning if conditions made it impossible to play on Friday night. The junior varsity would have played at 10 a.m., the varsity at noon.
The decision to cancel the game instead was made after consulting with the Kern High School District and the California Highway Patrol, Snyder said. “The highway patrol has asked us to stay off the roads, and, of course, our first concern is sudent safety,” Snyder said.
The freshman game against East Bakersfield, originally scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, was canceled earlier.
Snyder said there was no room in the schedule to play the game at a later date. “We're booked all the way through to the state chamionships,” he said. “There's no place to reschedule it to. The only possible make up date would have been Saturdady.”
The home game on Friday night, Oct. 23, against Golden Valley now will serve as the Warriors’ homecoming game, Snyder said, and all associated homecoming activities would be postponed until that date except for the dance. The homecoming king and queen will also be crowned next week. “The dance is still going on (Saturday),” Snyder said, “only now it's not a homecoming dance. It's just sort of a semi-formal first dance of the year, I guess.”
High School maintenance workers were at the football field Friday morning pumping water off a flooded track. The field itself was playable, one of the workers, Linda Philbin, said. “It was just a little soft,” she said. Snyder said the field would not have been an issue. “Everything was ready to go,” he said. “It was all lined and ready to play, but the safety of the students comes first.”
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