By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
It’s a week off for football teams awaiting the state playoffs.
There were options for teams to add an additional game that wouldn’t factor into postseason seedings, but those won’t involve Alamance County teams.
“I don’t think it would serve us,” Southern Alamance coach Tony McCants said. “We can treat it as an extra week (of preparation).”
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association made changes to the postseason calendar to allow teams in the western part of the state to complete more of their regular seasons following a rash of postponements related to Hurricane Helene.
Seeding and pairings will be announced Sunday afternoon. The first round is set for November 15, with the finals December 20 or 21.
Coaches seemed to accept the layoff as a time to retool after last week’s regular-season finales.
“When you get to game No. 10 in a high school football season, our kids need a break,” Williams coach Patrick Stokes said. “We’re tired.”
Teams will need to win six games to capture a state championship, so they’re hoping the season extends close to Christmas.
Cummings coach David Grimm said adding a game this week “wasn’t really on the radar” for his Class 2-A team.
“We don’t have a whole lot of reserves, so didn’t really think about doing that,” Grimm said. “Didn’t want one more game on top of that.”
Southeast Alamance coach Tony Aguilar said he inquired with other coaches about how practical it would be to add a game.
“It crossed my mind,” Aguilar said, “for about 10 seconds.”
Depending on the situation, Aguilar said an extra game could be a financial boost for a school’s athletics department. Yet a game beyond a 10th in the regular season won’t count toward seeding.
“It’s just a scrimmage,” he said.
McCants was on the Hoke County staff when flooding in the eastern part of the state caused a similar postseason shift in 2016.
“I’m glad they did something,” he said of the NCHSAA’s recent decision.
Another title for Cates
Eastern Randolph defeated visiting Randleman 27-26 on Friday night to secure the Piedmont Athletic Conference championship.
The Wildcats, coached by Graham resident Burton Cates, improved to 20-0 in PAC games across a four-season stretch.
Eastern Randolph (10-0 overall, 5-0 PAC) held on when a potential tying extra-point kick by Randleman was off the mark in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats will be in Class 1-A in the state playoffs. Randleman (8-2, 3-2), which was unbeaten until losing to last-place Trinity 21-19 a week before taking on Eastern Randolph, is a Class 2-A team.
Eastern Guilford comes close
Eastern Guilford, which lost non-conference games to Williams and Western Alamance early in the season, reached what amounted to the Mid-State 3-A Conference championship game. The Wildcats (6-4, 6-1) fell at undefeated Greensboro Dudley 21-2 on Friday night in a winner-take-all matchup to end the regular season.
