Harding Academy-West Carroll only TSSAA football Week 2 game canceled by heat: 'Better to be safe than sorry'

Harding Academy won’t be playing a game in Week 2 of the Tennessee high school football season because of the heat, its coach Herbert Kendall, confirmed with The Commercial Appeal on Friday morning.  

The Lions were scheduled to play at West Carroll on Friday night, which is about two hours away from Memphis in Atwood. Kendall and the West Carroll football coach, Clayton Morris had been talking about how to handle this week’s game since Wednesday. 

The National Weather Service forecast for Memphis was for a high of 100 degrees, and many schools in the area decided to start games later on Friday night. Kendall said his players’ safety was of the utmost importance when deciding if they were going to play or not.  

“For me, as being the leader of a program, a leader of this football team, I thought it was in the best interest for us, we’re not playing this game for the safety of our kids,” Kendall said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” 

They considered moving the game, which was originally scheduled to start at 7 p.m. to as late as an 8 p.m. start, but Kendall said that wasn’t ideal with the two-hour commute back to Memphis.  

"There’s no guarantee that we would kick off at 8 p.m.,” Kendall said. “And today was one of the hottest days forecasted in west Tennessee. … I told him 7:30 p.m. would be my best (time), but there’s still no guarantee.”

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Per TSSAA rules, the game will be a no contest unless it can be rescheduled. This is the only Tennessee high school football game in the state that has been canceled this week due to heat, TSSAA assistant director Richard McWhirter confirmed to the USA Today Sports network.

West Carroll is a non-region game for the Lions, but the two teams had a contract for a home-and-home series this season and next season.  

That didn’t factor into their decision to ultimately cancel the game.  

Their focus was player safety as temperatures and the heat index continue to remain in the low 100s through this week’s games.  

"Our decision was based purely on what we felt was good and right for the kids that we’re in charge of,” King said.  

Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.