For the second week in a row, the St. Vincent Indians football team finds itself without a Friday night opponent. It’s not all bad news. The Indians will be playing on Saturday instead.
Two weeks, ago, the Bayless Bronchos forfeited their game with St. Vincent because of illness, leaving coach Tim Schumer’s team idle for the week. This week, the Indians were scheduled to play Cuba on the road for the Wildcats’ homecoming game.
Thursday night, St. Vincent activities director Jack Rigdon was contacted by his counterpart from Cuba, located approximately 2 hours northwest of Perryville, and informed that Cuba would be canceling the game.
The school also issued a statement via Facebook announcing the decision.
“In order to protect the safety and wellbeing of our student-athletes,” the statement reads, “Cuba High School has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow's scheduled homecoming football game due to low numbers of participants.”
The phone call and announcement set off a flurry of activity for Rigdon.
“I got a phone call at 6 p.m. last night,” Rigdon said. “I'm from southwest Missouri and I actually had some mutual connections to [the Ash Grove] AD and I got in contact and it worked out.”
Rigdon said there was a bit of luck involved as well.
“Springfield Central in the beginning of the year canceled their entire varsity football season,” Rigdon said. “So that kind of opened things up. We were almost going to play Parkview last week, which was on Central’s schedule. Ash Grove was on their schedule. In football, it's just so hard to pick anybody up — this year, it's kind of wild to see the openings there actually are —and I got ahold of their AD last night and kind of made it happen.”
With the two forfeits, St. Vincent’s record technically improves to 4-3, but Rigdon said he felt it was important to find a team that the Indians could actually play.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to get our kids to play,” Rigdon said. “I know it's not ideal driving four hours away to play but at the same time it's about getting a game in and getting to play. I also think about our seniors and parents and there are just so many limited opportunities left.
“I'll tell you right now, if we don't play, I don't know how homecoming would look next week.”
The schedule shift leaves coach Tim Schumer’s Indians with little time to prepare for Class 1 Ash Grove (5-1). Saturday’s game would be the first meeting between the two schools.
The Pirates’ offense is averaging 37.8 points per game, while their defense has allowed an average of just 15.
“It is an unfortunate situation for both schools,” Schumer said. “I know it wasn’t an easy decision for [Cuba’s] administration to cancel a homecoming game. Fortunately for us, we have found a game.”
Kickoff for Saturday’s game in Ash Grove is scheduled for 4 p.m.
