Snow forces high schools to postpone all of Friday's games

All high school sporting events scheduled for Friday were postponed on Long Island after a quick-moving winter storm dumped between six and eight inches across most of the region.

There were 63 contests postponed in six sports in Nassau County and 39 events in three sports in Suffolk County. According to Ralph Dalton, the director of athletics at St. John the Baptist, all nine scheduled events in the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA were postponed.

"We are postponed across the board for Friday’s schedule," said Pat Pizzarelli, the executive director for Nassau's Section VIII school sports. "Schools are closed so there are no events."

Pizzarelli added that the Saturday schedule is not expected to be impacted by the Friday snow.

"We have a full slate of games for Saturday, and we expect all of those events to move forward and be played," he said. "It would be difficult to reschedule any of Friday’s postponements for Saturday because all of our officials are already scheduled to work."

In Suffolk, Tom Combs, the executive director for Section XI, which governs all school sports in the county, said all events are postponed for public school sports.

"Our schools are closed Friday and all events will be rescheduled at the earliest possible date," he said.

Dalton added that the NSCHSAA is looking to reschedule Friday’s boys and girls basketball games as soon as possible. The St. John Baptist at Holy Trinity boys basketball game was rescheduled for Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

"Our athletic directors are working on new dates for our events," Dalton said.

Nassau postponed 12 girls basketball games, 12 boys basketball games, 23 wrestling dual meets, 10 swimming meets and six fencing events.

Suffolk postponed 10 girls basketball games, 12 boys basketball games and 20 wrestling matches.

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.