stock photo

Instead of Friday night lights, Limestone County students and fans will be watching football under Thursday night lights this week, thanks to heavy rain forecast for the area Friday.

All six of Limestone County’s high schools have moved their games from Friday night to tonight due to weather, said county schools athletic director Rusty Bates.

Games affected are Ardmore at Madison County, Clements at Lexington, East Limestone at Guntersville, Brooks at Elkmont, Sheffield at Tanner and Deshler at West Limestone.

Bates said the decision to move the games was not a districtwide decision, but was left up to each school’s principal.

“We didn’t want to make a district decision,” Bates said. “We wanted to allow everybody to make their own decision. Three of our games are on the road, so those schools made that decision with the school they are playing. Elkmont has senior night scheduled, and it’s hard to honor seniors with a 90 percent chance of rain. The other two are big region games. We just wanted to make sure they had the best playing surfaces they could have and make sure it is a good experience for our fans as well.”

Bates said the principals of each high school communicated with elementary schools in the area to try to avoid conflicts

“We had some fall festivals and things that were conflicting, so we wanted to make sure the principals contacted those schools and worked together without us making a wholesale decision,” he said.

Bates said three school principals called him Tuesday night with their decisions to move their games, while the other three school principals contacted him Wednesday morning with their decisions.

“I feel this is the right decision,” Bates said. “We’re looking at 2 to 4 inches of rain possibly Friday afternoon. And while they aren’t calling for anything other than rain, if you get a stadium full of people and lightning strikes those aluminum bleachers, it’s a huge problem. It’s just better to go ahead and play the games on Thursday night.”

While county schools will all play tonight, Athens High School’s game against Lee-Huntsville is still scheduled for Friday. The school installed new artificial turf at its stadium over the summer, which gives players a firm playing surface even in rainy weather.

All games Thursday and Friday will kick off at 7 p.m.