High school football: Florida, Georgia schools cancel, postpone games as residents brace for Hurricane Ian's impact

With Hurricane Ian forecast to hit the Florida Gulf Coast by early Wednesday morning, many high school football games across Florida and up into Georgia have been canceled or postponed.

One contest, No. 20 Lakeland hosting Lake Gibson was scheduled for Friday, but played Monday. Lakeland, which is about 35 miles east of Tampa, won 47-14.

Ian will likely be a Category 4 hurricane "that threatens to deliver a nightmare storm-surge to the Tampa Bay and southwest Florida regions," according to the Associated Press.

The hurricane — which already has wind speeds of 125 mph — is projected take aim at central Florida, hitting Orlando, Daytona Beach, Gainesville and Jacksonville. As of Tuesday evening, there was a clearly formed eye north of Cuba as Ian strengthened into a Category 3 and drifted northeast with a projected landfall between Fort Myers and the Tampa Bay area.

No. 14 IMG Academy (Bradenton), about 45 miles south of Tampa, canceled its Friday home game against Jones (Orlando).

Edgewater (Orlando), ranked No. 9 in Florida had its game at Wekiva (Apopka) moved from Friday to Monday, Oct. 3.

Venice head coach John Peacock said on Twitter that his team's game against nationally ranked Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) on Oct. 7 has been canceled. Venice was scheduled to face Riverview Sarasota (Sarasota) this weekend and Peacock said that game will be rescheduled to Oct. 7 or 10.

And while Ian's landfall has forced Floridians to hunker down, evacuate and cancel or move games, Georgia faces a similar plight. Many games in the Peach State also have been moved up to either Wednesday, Thursday or pushed back to Monday with Ian expected to impact more than half of the state this weekend.