news-record.com

GREENSBORO -- In football parlance, it's called piling on.

First Southern Guilford lost to North Pitt 40-14 in Friday's rain-soaked 2-AA playoff opener. On Monday, the Storm absorbed another loss just as painful: After paying expenses and splitting the gate with North Pitt, Southern Guilford actually lost money on the game.

The Storm is hardly the exception. Across the Triad, high schools are reporting that football attendance is down this season thanks to Mother Nature's proclivity to rain on Friday nights this fall.

Some schools reported attendance drops of as much as 30 percent. That's a huge blow to a school's non-revenue sports, many of which rely on football's powerful financial gate to fund their seasons.

Just 250 people showed up for the Storm's playoff game, which was played in a cold and steady rainfall Friday night at C.K. Siler Stadium.

"That doesn't come close to covering expenses," Southern Guilford athletics director Ron Crawford said.

Had the weather cooperated, Crawford said the crowd would have been closer to 1,500. Instead, Crawford said he and his peers "are going to have to make some hard decisions" later this year.

He asked: "Do some sports get new uniforms or do you use the old ones one more year. We're going to have some (sports) that might have to do without a few things."

Since Sept. 1, rainfall in the Triad is about 1.5 inches below normal. Nevertheless it rained on four Friday nights during the football season, according to the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

Ragsdale played three home games this year in the rain.

"It's had a huge impact on us," Ragsdale athletics director Glenn Locklear said. "Students and fans just aren't going to come out in the rain."

The Tigers' first-round playoff game against Southeast Guilford on Friday was played in a steady rainfall that kept home fans from both schools. Locklear, who was still counting the gate receipts from the game on Monday, estimated about 950 people attended the game. That figure would easily have doubled had it not rained, he said.

Ragsdale fared better than Northeast Guilford, where only 150 fans showed up for the Rams' playoff game against Wilson Hunt.

"It was pitiful, beyond, pitiful," Rams athletics director John Primm said.

Primm said the school lost money on the game.

Because football's revenue is shared by other sports, Primm and other athletics directors are having to readjust their budgets for the remainder of the year.

"We can get by, but maybe some of that extra stuff for other sports might not happen," Locklear said. "It's hard to tell another sport they can't have this or they're going to have to that certain piece of equipment for another year, but when football suffers everyone else does, too."

Schools were given a choice last week to postpone their playoff games and reschedule them for Saturday or Monday.

Que Tucker, director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, said athletics directors and coaches aren't wild about playing on Saturday or Monday.

"This is a big college football state and coaches and fans want to see those games on Saturdays," said Tucker.

She said most coaches frown on moving back games to Monday during the playoffs.

"That's the old coaching mentality coming in to play," she said. "When you get to the playoffs you don't want two games played in the same week."

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com