CDO coach Dustin Peace can count on one hand, actually needing only three fingers, for when a game in which he played or coached was postponed because of lightning. That spans more than 20 years, the last 18 as a coach.
“Let’s see, 3 divided by 200 … what is that a 1.5 percent chance?” Peace said with a laugh.
Thursday night’s game — the featured game of the Coaches for Charity Kickoff Classic — against Flowing Wells at CDO is one of those three games Peace mentioned. The opener between the Caballeros and Dorados was postponed until Friday at 7 p.m., weather permitting, of course. More storms are forecast in Tucson on Friday night.
PROCEEDS FROM THE GAMES GO TO A SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR LOCAL ATHLETES
“It wasn’t meant to be that a Friday night football was to be played on Thursday,” Peace said.
Last year’s game scheduled at CDO against Prescott was cancelled because of a monsoon storm with lightning. In 2014, the Dorados’ game with Ironwood Ridge was stopped at halftime because of the inclement weather.
“We talked to the kids about keeping those emotions intact (for the rescheduled game against Flowing Wells),” Peace said. “There’s really not anything else we’re going to do. I don’t think any coach would prepare or do anything different.
“At this point, we have our plan in and hopefully we’ll have another opportunity tomorrow.”
Flowing Wells coach Scott Cortese, in his first year as head coach of the Caballeros but with an extensive coaching career in Tucson, said Thursday night’s game was also his third postponement because of lighting.
Last year’s game against Walden Grove (when Cortese was a Flowing Wells assistant) was postponed because of lightning and the teams played at 9 a.m. the following Saturday. While he was the head coach at Catalina Foothills, a game against Salpointe was also postponed because of lightning and rescheduled for early Saturday morning.
“Nice thing about this game against CDO is that it’s still Friday night football tomorrow. Thank goodness for that,” Cortese said. “Playing tomorrow night, same time 7 o’clock, they’re used to Friday nights any way, so it’s not going to be a big adjustment.
“Like I told them in the locker room, nothing has changed. We’re sticking to the same game plan. It’s just a change in date.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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