- November 16, 2024
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Unlike this stay-inside generation, I was raised in an era where my mom would lock my siblings and me out of the house and tell us not to come back until the streetlights came on. That wasn’t a challenge. We didn’t have any intentions on returning, especially when our cable was turned off.
But whenever the thundering and lightning appeared, all of our aspirations fail of playing sports with friends, inventing new games or just doing anything to keep from going inside. Instead, we had to sit on the couch and miserably watch the rain drops roll down our windows, waiting for a Cat-in-the-hat like save.
That’s how I felt Thursday night at Mainland. Eager to see all of their talent for the first time this season, my nephew, Malik, and I discussed what we thought would happen all the way from Palm Coast to Daytona. He assumed Cyrus Fagan would catch a lot of interceptions because he had seen him do it many times at a practice.
After getting our tickets and watching the area’s best band make its way to the foyer, we were suddenly stopped and heard an announcement tell us that we were under a rain delay. That rain delay lasted throughout the night, along with Malik’s complaining, saying we should’ve left a long time ago. I remembered those days spent looking out of that window as a kid.
Even more saddened was the team. They had been preparing for that moment and were more than ready. Unfortunately, their hopes were shot, thanks to the lingering lightning.
“We’ve been talking about playing Lake Mary since the spring, so of course it was a letdown,” coach Scott Wilson said. “Our positive view is that we had one less week for bodies to endure, and we are excited for DeLand on Friday night.”
While waiting to see if Mainland would play or cancel their game, I began to regret making the trip to Daytona, when Matanzas was playing right down the road from me. Wanting to know how they were doing, with the Pirates’ new wave of confidence, I scanned my Twitter feed to find score updates, and I only found the same news about the Pirates’ game; it was in a lightning delay, and they eventually had to cancel.
“I've lost a bunch of money at the gate because of Mother Nature,” coach Robert Ripley said. “The team was disappointed; they wanted to play a good Clay team.”
While both teams can find positives for not playing, they both wanted to get on that field more than I wanted to see a game. Hopefully, they will get their chances Friday night, when it actually matters.
