Weather postpones host of high school games

Roosevelt's Erin Parker entered action Saturday as Nassau's second-leading rusher. Hoping for help in slowing down Parker, West Hempstead football coach Dominick Carre said he wished for bad weather.

"My wish came true too much," he said. "Be careful what you wish for."

An unusually early winter storm blanketed much of Long Island with snow and rain, leading to freezing temperatures and numerous high school games being postponed.

A winter weather advisory was issued for Long Island, where estimates called for 6 to 8 inches of snow piling up overnight in Nassau and Queens, and 2 to 3 inches predicted for Suffolk.

Calhoun and Plainview JFK reported having football fans transported to the hospital for suspected cases of hypothermia. Flooding was rampant in several areas of the Island, and downed branches also littered some roadways.

The weather washed out nine football games, as well as seven boys and girls soccer playoff games and a field hockey quarterfinal. The Nassau championships in boys and girls cross country were moved to Sunday, as was the Suffolk freshman/sophomore meet at Sunken Meadow.

In football, Iona Prep at St. Anthony's (CHSAA), Newfield at Riverhead (Suffolk II), Westhampton at Bellport (Suffolk III), Hicksville at Uniondale (Nassau I), Seaford at Island Trees, Valley Stream North at Oyster Bay and Malverne at Mineola (Nassau IV) will play Sunday. Roosevelt at West Hempstead (Nassau IV) was postponed until 3:30 p.m. Monday.

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West Islip led Northport 22-0 at the end of the first half when the game was stopped because of unplayable field conditions. The game will resume Sunday at 9:45 a.m. at Veteran's Memorial Park in Northport.

At least that game will get finished. Valley Stream Central led host Plainview JFK 6-0 at the half before the game was called because of snow and freezing conditions. The teams will not reconvene and the result is final. VSC coach Frank Chimenti said the field was "like a sheet of ice.''

"The conditions of the field were awful," he said. "Kids were slipping, the ball was on the ground. It was bad. About as bad of conditions as I've played in or coached in."

At West Hempstead, the temperature fell to 32 degrees. The field was battered and covered with gusts of snow. Some spectators showed up, hoping to see a rare clash of Nassau IV standouts in the snow. But initial hope that the game would be played vanished at 2:10 p.m. when the game was officially postponed because of safety concerns, 40 minutes after the scheduled start time.

"The way the field is, there's puddles from end zone to end zone, hash to hash," Carre said. "It's an inch in some spots and three inches in other spots. It's not worth playing a game when you're already in the playoffs to lose one of your best players because he strained a hip flexor or something."

"It's all about safety," said Roosevelt coach Joe Vito, in his 18th year as head coach. "When you get a little older in coaching, it's more about safety. It's not about being a tough-guy football coach."

Vito said he was surprised at how quickly conditions turned from wet to worse.

"When I first looked out, it was just slight rain," he said. "I thought, 'All right, maybe this storm is going to move out.' Then all of a sudden it just hit with a vengeance."

With the football playoffs scheduled to start Friday, the postponed teams will have less time to prepare for their first-round matchups.

"It's frustrating. You always want to play," Carre said.

But Vito noted that, because of religious holidays during the regular season, every team has had to cope with a shorter preparation schedule.

"In every conference, we're used to a short week. So you kind of know what you need to do during that week," he said. "I've never seen this snow this early. I guess nobody has."