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.
Although Miami and Fort Lauderdale are out of the cone of probability and not in Ian's path, No. 25
Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale) moved its game against No. 13
American Heritage (Plantation) to Saturday.
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.
This story will be updated
