Winter storm alters Willard schedule

A severe winter storm passing through Oklahoma has forced Broken Arrow High School to withdraw from the Willard (Mo.) Four-State Classic.

The decision by Broken Arrow not to play has turned the tournament into a three-team round-robin and the schedule has been adjusted accordingly. Even though Fort Scott High's teams will not have to play Thursday, the Tigers will still depart at 8 a.m. Thursday morning so they can get to Springfield before the storms hit that area.

The Tigers will still play Springdale (Ark). Har-Ber on Friday as originally scheduled but the times have been changed. The girls' game tips off at 5:30 with the boys to follow at 7 p.m.

Saturday, the Tigers will face Willard instead of Broken Arrow. The girls will play at 1 p.m. with the boys following at 2:30.

Willard will play Har-Ber Thursday with the girls' game at 5:30 and the boys at 7 p.m.

The last time the tournment was adversely affected by weather was 2006. All four teams weren't able to reach Willard in time for Thursday's games that season although Fort Scott was there. Each of the four schools --Shiloh Christian (Ark.) and Greenwood, Ark. were the other teams that year -- played one game Friday and two on Saturday.

Broken Arrow's decision to pull out also means that this will be the first time the tournament has not had a full compliment of four boys' and four girls' teams competing.

The storms are expected to be so bad in Oklahoma that, according to the same email sent to the Tribune that announced Broken Arrow's decision, that the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association has postponed this week's round of the football playoffs to next week. The Class 6A championship game between Tulsa Union and Jenks was scheduled for Thursday night. That has been moved to Dec. 12 with semifinals in classes 3A, 2A and A moved back to Dec. 13 and the finals in classes 5A, 4A, B and C pushed back to Dec. 14.

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NOTE TO READERS -- The Tribune's Winter Sports Preview, included in Thursday's issue, was sent to the presses before the announcement about Broken Arrow's decision to withdraw from the tournament made it to the Sports Editor's desk. Thus, the schedule in the preview will still have the original timetable for the Willard Tournament.