All high school sports within the Fort Mill has been stopped until after winter break, according to the Fort Mill School District.
The district announced Wednesday afternoon that they will be going virtual for the remaining two days, Dec. 17 and 18, before winter break, thus cancelling all sporting events until Jan. 3 at the earliest.
“We will be shutting down sports with the exception of state competition scheduled for this weekend,” said Joe Burke, Fort Mill School District spokesman.
Both Fort Mill and Catawba Ridge cheerleading are in the 5A and 4A state championships this Saturday at the Florence Civic Center. They will still participate in that event as planned.
Both basketball and wrestling were already feeling the pinch because of COVID-19 as some of their games and matches had already been cancelled.
At Fort Mill High, the boys’ varsity basketball team has had nearly two weeks’ worth of games wiped out due to the virus inside their program. The Fort Mill boys’ varsity team last played Dec. 1 at Lancaster. They were supposed to return to action Dec. 21. Now that won’t happen. They currently sit at 0-4 on the season.
While the Fort Mill girl’s program hasn’t had issues that has caused them to cancel games, the team’s game against Indian Land this week was cancelled as Indian Land is currently doing online only classes because of being short staffed at the school due to either the virus itself or staff quarantining. The Lady Jackets, who were supposed to host Northwestern Friday, but won’t now, are currently 3-4 on the season.
Nation Ford has also had basketball games cancelled as their game against East Clarendon was cancelled Dec. 15. East Clarendon is in virtual learning as a school district as well also cancelling all sporting activities until after their winter break.
The Falcons have cancelled the Nation Ford Holiday Classic basketball tournament scheduled for Dec. 21-23 which not just affects both varsity teams for their school, but Fort Mill’s girls’ and boys’ varsity teams as well. The tournament was supposed to have Dorman, Central, York, Clover, Bamberg and Charleston Charter participate.
The start of wrestling for all three local high schools was already pushed back to starting in mid-December before this cancellation. Now wrestling won’t start until after winter break.
Nation Ford wrestling was supposed to start this past Monday at Indian Land, but didn’t because of coronavirus issues at Indian Land.
Fort Mill wrestling was supposed to start Wednesday night at Chapin, but that match had already been cancelled. The Milltown Duals were supposed to occur Saturday with four-teams involved, but Jackets’ head coach Chris Brock said that had already dwindled down to just a dual between them and York.
One team that has really gotten hit this winter with COVID issues is the Catawba Ridge wrestling program. Not only did they have their share of issues with the virus inside their own program, they are now having to rework their entire schedule and it is uncertain when their season will start.
The Copperheads’ wrestling program was supposed to start the season Dec. 16 at Region 3-4A opponent South Pointe and then participate in the Milltown Duals at Fort Mill Dec. 19, but because of the virus within the program both of those dates were cancelled. That pushed their start back to Dec. 21 hosting Lancaster. However, that match is now cancelled and like their Nation Ford and Fort Mill counterparts, it is unsure when wrestling season will start.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
