Many schools cancel athletic events with heavy rain and strong winds forecast late Tuesday afternoon

Both governing bodies of interscholastic sports for Nassau and Suffolk left the decision to play or cancel athletic events up to the individual school districts on Tuesday. With heavy rain and strong winds forecast over the majority of Long Island late Tuesday afternoon and evening, many schools decided to cancel their events.

But the executive directors for Section VIII (Nassau) and Section XI (Suffolk) wanted the individual schools to make those final decisions.

“Unless there’s a severe emergency we always [leave it up to the schools] for the most part,” said Tom Combs, the executive director for Section XI, which governs Suffolk scholastic sports. “This storm is going to hit very late. We talked to our executive board and they all felt it was fine to keep the games going.”

Pat Pizzarelli, the executive director for Section VIII, which governs all Nassau athletics, said he believed nearly every Nassau school canceled its games. He said the only events Section VIII canceled itself were those held in Suffolk County. Suffolk executives declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and due to that, Pizzarelli didn’t want to risk sending student-athletes into Suffolk. This canceled winter track at St. Anthony’s and any non-league events in Suffolk.

“The No. 1 thing is the safety of our students and why risk it?” Pizzarelli said. “Years ago, we would have never canceled for some rain and wind. But in this day and age, absolutely. We have to worry about our kids. So it screws up our schedule, who cares? Let’s just be safe.”

St. Anthony’s and St. John the Baptist, two of the better girls basketball teams in the CHSAA this season, had their contest at St. Anthony’s postponed. That game will now be played at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Ed Ramirez, the athletic director at Garden City, said its boys and girls basketball games against Calhoun were postponed due to the Bellmore-Merrick Central district canceling all after-school activities. Garden City still allowed its teams to practice.

“The forecast calls for the bad weather to really be around 7:00, 8:00, so we figured we could get the practices in before the weather got bad,” Ramirez said. “This way kids didn’t lose the opportunity for practice.”

Tuesday is often one of the busiest days of the week for boys and girls basketball contests. Section XI had only five boys and four girls basketball games still scheduled for Tuesday as of 4:30 p.m. with multiple games already rescheduled for Wednesday. Nearly every event on the Nassau schedule was canceled as well.

“Why risk it?” Pizzarelli said. “Why put the kids in more danger than they have to be?”