All 6 Smoky Mountain Conference football teams will play on Friday
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All 6 Smoky Mountain Conference football teams will play on Friday

Posted on by Matthew Reynolds

In what might come as a surprise to some fans, the six teams from North Carolina’s furthest west conference will resume action on Friday, Oct. 4.

Hurricane Helene’s wind, rain, and resulting destruction ravaged most of Western North Carolina. Fortunately for those in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Swain Counties, the counties in the southwestern most corner of N.C., the amount of rainfall was not as significant.

The following graphic from our WRAL Weather team shows the cumulative rain totals from Helene throughout the region. Note the lower purple and red areas as a opposed to the yellow and orange areas that cover counties like Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Translyvania, and many more.

Western North Carolina's rain totals over the past seven days, via WRAL Weather.
Western North Carolina’s rain totals over the past seven days, via WRAL Weather.

We’ve reached out to coaches from Andrews, Cherokee, Hayesville, Murphy, Robbinsville, and Swain High Schools and have confirmed that all six are set to play on Friday. These schools and their surrounding communities did see some impacts from the storm, but not nearly as much as their neighbors to the east.

Wednesday, Oct. 2 will be a regular school day for the students at Andrews, Murphy, and the rest of the Cherokee County Schools district. Robbinsville and Graham County will also be back on Wednesday. Hayesville and the rest of Clay County returned on Monday. Swain County Schools have said they’ll be closed through Wednesday due to connectivity issues.

Here’s this week’s football schedule for the conference, all games will start at 7:30 p.m.

  • 3-2 Cherokee @ 1-4 Robbinsville
  • 4-1 Murphy @ 1-4 Hayesville
  • 0-4 Swain County @ 3-1 Andrews

How the N.C. High School Athletic Association is planning to address the scheduling challenges posed by the catastrophic damage in the rest of Western North Carolina remains to be seen.

If the NCHSAA chooses to extend the season, the Smoky Mountain Conference could find itself ahead of schedule compared to the rest of Western North Carolina. If teams from counties like Buncombe, Henderson, or Haywood counties decide its impossible to finish the season and the NCHSAA elects to continue without them, the Smoky Mountain teams continuing to play now could have them ready for the regularly scheduled playoffs.

Source: highschoolot.com