Six football games moved to Thursday next week in observance of Yom Kippur

Wednesday, September 08, 2010
by Jeff Greer

Seven Palm Beach County football games have been moved from Friday, Sept. 17, to Thursday, Sept. 16, in observance of Yom Kippur, the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar that begins at sundown July 17.

The decision to move the dates is left up to the schools, according to Palm Beach County Athletic Administrator Yetta Greene.

"We look at the student populations and demographics of the school and, if we think it's a holiday that will impact the school, we let them make that choice," she said.

Usually schools mutually agree to reschedule the games. Both Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens agreed to push next Friday's contest at Royal Palm Beach to Thursday without any objections.

"We didn't want to exclude a single kid from the event," Royal Palm Beach Athletics Director Steven Kaufmann said.

Seminole Ridge moved next week's game at Jupiter's request, although Seminole Ridge Athletics Director Scott Parks said the game might've been moved even without Jupiter asking.

"It's just something we decided to do," Seminole Ridge coach Matt Dickmann said. "It happens every year at this time. We've told our kids to start spreading the word that the game is on Thursday, not Friday."

While it hurts gate receipts for the home teams by moving the games - Dickmann estimates Seminole Ridge could lose between $3,000 and $4,000 in revenue - coaches and athletics directors say it's the right thing to do in a tough situation.

Dickmann said he'd like to see the FHSAA come up with a better way to handle religious holidays. He suggested possibly giving every school in the state an open date the week of Yom Kippur. That way, each team would have a chance to play a regular schedule without reshuffling practice schedules.

"It's a quick turnaround," said Palm Beach Gardens coach Chris Davis, whose Gators play Saturday against Dwyer before their Sept. 16 game at Royal Palm Beach. "We have a real physical game on Saturday night, so it'll be tough to get ready for (next Thursday) so quickly."

~ jeff_greer@pbpost.com

Games changed from Friday, Sept. 17 to Thursday, Sept. 16

Suncoast at Palm Beach Lakes

Jupiter at Seminole Ridge

Palm Beach Gardens at Royal Palm Beach

Spanish River at Park Vista

West Boca at John I. Leonard

Santaluces at Wellington

Inlet Grove at Palm Beach Central