Fall Sports in South Carolina: How Hurricane Helene Changed the Game

Hurricane Helene has left its mark on South Carolina, causing some major shift in the fall sports schedule. The South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) held a virtual meeting to figure out how to make up for the missed games. About 66 football games were canceled statewide due to school closures caused by the hurricane. Four counties were hit particularly hard, missing out on two weeks of important region play. To fix this, the league came up with a couple of plans. One idea was to scrap one round of playoffs to stick to the original end date. Another option was to push back the championship games by a week while keeping all scheduled games. The SCHSL members were mostly on board with extending the regular season by a week, but they couldn't agree on whether to cut a playoff round or not. In the end, they voted 9-4 to keep the same number of playoff rounds and extend the regular season by a week. This means the championships will now be held from December 12-14 instead of December 5-7. They also talked about spreading out games for teams that didn't miss any during the hurricane. This would help avoid long breaks before the playoffs. You can catch the livestream of the discussion here. This story is still developing, so stay tuned for updates.