Hopkins athletic officials have tried, but failed to find an opponent to play Friday, Oct. 18, in the wake of Kelloggsville’s announcement it is cancelling the rest of its football season.
Local officials have come up with a plan to honor seniors and parent Thursday evening, Oct. 24, in a junior varsity game at home versus Wayland, when players, cheerleaders and band members performing for the last time on the home gridiron will be recognized, along with their parents.
“We have a plan in place for Senior Night…” the athletic department announced in a public statement. “On Thursday, October 24th (Week 9) we are scheduled to host Wayland for a JV Football game, we would like the community to come out and support not only our JV football team, but our senior cheer, band, and football members with a recognition ceremony.
“This ceremony will be held prior to the game if we have a 6 p.m. start, or at halftime if we have a 5 p.m start. The start time will be determined sometime next week.”
The Viking football coaching staff had a meeting Monday after hearing the news and tried to replace that game if they could find another opponent.
“We exhausted all of our options and unfortunately could not get a game scheduled,” the statement continued. “Therefore we will not be playing a varsity football game Friday, Oct. 18.”
Kelloggsvile offered to play a junior varsity contest at Hopkins on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 5 p.m. Hopkins accepted that offer.
The statement concluded, “We know this isn’t an ideal situation, and we apologize for any inconveniences this may cause but we thought it was important to make sure our senior cheer, band, and football members were recognized.”
The Vikings, 6-0 overall and ranked No. 9 in Division 5, will play this Friday evening at Belding and will close out their season Friday, Oct. 25, in Petoskey against Menominee.