Isaac impacts schedule

Hurricane Isaac ripped apart this past week’s sports schedule – both on the prep and collegiate levels.

The biggest news arguably came in college football where Nicholls State was forced to indefinitely postpone its Saturday-scheduled road tilt with Oregon State.

The news was a source of disappointment to everyone in the Colonels’ athletics department who eagerly awaited the team’s opportunity to play a nationally prominent opponent.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that we will not be able to make this trip,” said Nicholls State University Athletic Director Rob Bernardi. “With the lingering effects of Hurricane Isaac, we do not want to put any of our student-athletes or staff in danger.”

The reasons for the postponement were two-fold, according to Colonels’ athletic officials.

The first was timing. With Isaac inundating the Tri-parish area in the early-to-mid portion of the week, the university was forced to cancel Tuesday-Friday classes this past week.

The cancellations of classes, combined with the storm’s passage obviously meant the team was unable to properly prepare for its opponent.

But the second issue was travel.

New Orleans International Airport did not re-open for air traffic until Friday.

Bernardi said the team did not want to risk a rushed trip and erred on the side of caution.

“We feel like it is best to focus on the safety of everyone, and we’ll look into rescheduling the game at a later time,” Bernardi said.

Bernardi mentioned rescheduling – but it may serve both the Colonels and Beavers better if the game is never played.

That’s because the common off-date for both teams is currently Dec. 1 – the final week of the regular season.

But for Nicholls and Oregon State to be free on that weekend, the Colonels must miss the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs and the Beavers must not reach the PAC-12 Championship Game.

While the football team lamented its lost trip to Oregon, Colonels’ volleyball missed a slew of home games.

The Nicholls-hosted Bayou Invitational was canceled because of Isaac.

The event was scheduled for this past Friday and Saturday, and it would have included the Colonels, CSU-Bakersfield, Grambling, Jackson State and Louisiana-Monroe.

To combat the cancellation of the tournament, Nicholls’ volleyball announced that it would try and schedule a match against UL-Monroe later in the season.

The Colonels’ cross-country and soccer teams also had their week’s schedules ravished by Isaac.

Soccer shifted its soccer match against Southern from last Friday to this evening at 7 p.m.

The cross-country team’s season-opening meet scheduled for last Friday was shifted to yesterday.

Results were unavailable at press time.

On the prep level, this week’s opening weekend of football was leveled by the storm.

South Lafourche, Central Lafourche, Thibodaux, Covenant Christian Academy and South Terrebonne all canceled their games because of a combination of field conditions and travel arrangements.

The Tarpons were scheduled to play a home game with Destrehan. The Trojans were initially slated to play Ponchatoula. Thibodaux was slated to play Higgins. Covenant Christian Academy was slated to play Brother Martin, and South Terrebonne was slated to open the season with Miller-McCoy Academy.

In St. Mary, Morgan City and Berwick canceled their season-opening games, while Patterson and Central Catholic were able to go off without a hitch.

The prep cross country and volleyball schedules were also washed away this week in Isaac’s aftermath.