For the second week in a row, the St. Vincent Indians football team found itself without a Friday night opponent after Cuba canceled its own Homecoming game.
While the Indians scrambled to find an exhibition game to warm up for their own Homecoming game on Friday, Perryville High School fans were left wondering about their own Homecoming on Oct. 25, when the Pirates are scheduled to host Cuba.
According to Perryville High School activities director Justin Dreyer, who has been in contact with Cuba, Friday’s cancellation was related to a spate of injuries that left the Wildcats severely shorthanded.
“They plan to play out the rest of the season,” Dreyer said, “so we’ll still play them for Homecoming.”
Friday’s canceled game was the second consecutive for the Indians, after the Bayless Bronchos forfeited their scheduled game because of illness, leaving coach Tim Schumer’s team idle for the week.
Last Thursday night, St. Vincent activities director Jack Rigdon was contacted by his counterpart from Cuba and was informed that Cuba would be canceling the game “due to low numbers of participants.”
A flurry of phone calls, connections and a bit of luck let Rigdon find an opponent that wouldn’t leave the Indians idle for two weeks.
“Springfield Central at 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 improved 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.”
The schedule shift left St. Vincent coach Tim Schumer’s Indians with little time to prepare for a team they’d never seen before.
“It is an unfortunate situation for both schools,” Schumer said last week. “I know it wasn’t an easy decision for [Cuba’s] administration to cancel a homecoming game. Fortunately for us, we found a game.”
