‘It’s been difficult so far’: How Bibb County is trying to recover lost football games after Hurricane Helene

With much of Georgia still dealing with the fallout from Hurricane Helene, the high school football schedule has been thrown into flux.

Macon luckily avoided much of the bad weather, but its schools and sports teams are still feeling the tough effects. 

Bibb County School District Athletic Director Kevin Grooms, standing behind his desk while fervently rescheduling plenty of sporting events, conveyed the sense of urgency most schools have about scheduling right now.

“Obviously it’s been difficult so far. You have to work with your own school’s athletic director and the other schools,” Grooms said. “We’re lucky Macon avoided the worst of it, but other schools didn’t, and we have to be attentive to their needs and help them as much as we can while also fulfilling our own.”

Several Macon schools including Southwest, Northeast, Central and ACE — though the Gryphons are not part of Bibb County School District — all reside in a district with Dublin, East Laurens and West Laurens.

With the hurricane impacting Laurens County more than many expected, plenty of games between Macon schools and teams from over east were canceled, including a crucial matchup between Northeast and Dublin.

“We’ve had more luck scheduling those games again. A lot of teams like Northeast still had a bye week on their schedule,” Grooms said. “So we’re able to do that instead of having a Saturday game… sometimes a Saturday game can be a good thing. It’s a different environment for kids to experience.”

The Westside Seminoles were one such team, playing their game last week on Saturday instead of Friday. 

“I don’t think it affected our prep too much, no,” Seminoles head coach Spoon Risper said the Monday after the game, which was a close loss to GHSA 2A No. 2 Morgan County at home. “We’ll always adjust as a team, always find a way to play. It was also only one day, though. Other circumstances can be worse.”

Southwest had to play its game earlier instead of later, facing off against Dodge County last Wednesday. Head coach and athletic director Joe Dupree said it definitely impacted the Patriots’ prep time.

“I felt like we weren’t prepared going in on Wednesday, but that’s on me,” he said. “It also gives us time to get ready for the next week, which is kind of a benefit.”

The extra prep time meant little, though, once Southwest’s game this week against East Laurens was rescheduled to Nov. 8 Wednesday morning. Central’s game in Jefferson County for this Friday also got rescheduled, as Jefferson County schools still have not reopened.

The moves, another example of how shaken up Macon teams are schedule-wise, also reflect the discord at the state level — that Nov. 8 date was originally when statewide playoffs were to begin, but GHSA officials met Tuesday and elected to push the tournament back by a week after so many lost games.

The extra week opens up more opportunities for schools across Georgia to fit in more games and could be crucial for regions with several schools impacted by the storm.

“The hardest one for us right now is Howard, because they’re in a region with so many Augusta schools,” Grooms said. “Obviously it’s very difficult what those schools are dealing with, and it’s going to be hard to figure out those games.”

The Huskies’ Region 3-3A consists of six schools from the Augusta and Richmond County area, and Howard has only played two of those teams so far. With the bulk of the region schedule still in front of the Huskies and their bye already gone, one extra week won’t be enough.

At least Howard got its Homecoming game out of the way early.

“Obviously it’s Homecoming, you want that experience to be big for the kids and that event to be a great one. Those games are more important… and it’s why we scheduled the Westside game for Saturday to make sure they got Homecoming,” Grooms said.

High school football isn’t the only sport in a scheduling predicament. Softball playoffs are just two weeks away, and middle school sports have to happen as well.

“Our middle school softball fields aren’t really playable,” Grooms said. “The high school fields are better, so we have to split time there to get everything caught up. Luckily volleyball is indoors.”

Then there’s the issue of getting the word out when games do change so the county can have fans make it to games. Grooms said the district is trying to use its social media and the schools’ social media accounts.