OTTUMWA —
OTTUMWA — In his 38 years associated with prep football, OHS Athletic Director Dave Clement has never had a gridiron game canceled.
That is until this year.
Ottumwa’s scheduled varsity tilt with fellow CIML foe Waukee was postponed to Monday at 7 p.m. because of lightning that lit up the sky near Schafer Stadium on Friday.
The Ottumwa game wasn’t the only area clash that will have to be played at a later date.
Pekin’s game at Wapello has been moved to tonight at 7 p.m. Also in Class 1A, District 6 action, Cardinal’s home tilt with Highland has been pushed back to Monday at 6 p.m in Eldon.
Two area Class 3A, District 7 contests were also affected by the persistent weather. Oskaloosa at Centerville has been moved to 7:30 p.m. tonight. Fairfield at Mount Pleasant has been rescheduled to Monday at 7:30 p.m.
The Ottumwa sophomore game versus Waukee is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
The Bridge City Knights’ (6-2) home game versus the Iowa Threshers is still scheduled to be played at Schafer Stadium in Ottumwa tonight at 7 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m.
Ottumwa saw its season opener versus Johnston pushed back a day to Saturday four weeks ago after five inches of rain pelted Wapello County in just one hour.
Clement took over as head football coach at Ottumwa in 1975 and later became OHS Athletic Director four years later. The former Iowa Hawkeye standout linebacker stated that two Ottumwa games have had to be stopped because of inclement weather and then restarted a day later.
Those Bulldog games took place at Indianola in 1999 and three years later versus Marshalltown at home in 2002.
Clement coached Iowa City Regina for two seasons from 1972-1973. He then coached one season at Macomb, Ill. in 1974.
Clement and Waukee administrators mutually agreed that the best course of action would be for the two teams to play at a later date.
“The standard is, you can’t take the field for 30 minutes after you see a lightning strike. The earliest we would have been able to play was 9 p.m.,” said Clement. “It’s just not good to have kids sitting in a locker room for three or four hours.”
This will be the first Ottumwa regular season game played on a Monday in school history. Ottumwa has played playoff games before on a Monday.
The non-conference CIML battle is a pivotal game for both squads as each teams enters the rescheduled fray with 0-3 records. Most pundits agree that Waukee and Ottumwa are two of the better winless teams remaining in Class 4A.
Ottumwa has lost to Johnston, West Des Moines Valley and Ames. The Bulldogs were competitive with all three teams early on, only to falter in the second half or late in the contests.
Waukee has lost to Ankeny, Sioux City East and Southeast Polk. Those three squads have a combined record of 9-0.
Sports
Ottumwa football game moved to Monday
Several other area games also postponed
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