High school sports to resume in Collier County this week after Hurricane Ian

Lee County, where Hurricane Ian made landfall, still uncertain when schools will open

NAPLES, FLORIDA – As Southwest Florida slowly recovers from the wrath of Hurricane Ian, sports will resume in some parts of the area this week.

Collier County Public Schools will reopen and return to classes on Thursday. Before that, the school district plans to resume practices Tuesday and hopes to play football games Friday night.

Volleyball games could start as soon as Wednesday according to Mark Rosenbalm, the district's director of interscholastic athletics.
The school district has not released a football schedule for Friday.

Collier County and Lee County schools have been closed since Sept. 27, the day before Hurricane Ian made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm.

Lee County, where Fort Myers is located, took the brunt of the storm. More than 40 people died in the county, which was hit with catastrophic flooding and wind damage.

Collier County suffered flooding near the coast but largely avoided structural damage.

The School District of Lee County is closed this week and has not announced plans for next week. In a speech posted on Facebook, superintendent Christopher Bernier said all the schools have been assessed and the district is formulating a reopening plan.

"We have some schools we believe are ready to open," Bernier said. "Others need minimal work. Some of our schools will require significant reapirs. As we expected, a few have damage that may be beyond repair."

David La Rosa, who is in charge of Lee Schools athletics, told SBLive that the district might reopen schools in tiers based on the amount of damage. However, once one school opens, all the schools in the district will be able to hold athletic practices.

La Rosa said he has been in talks with the Florida High School Athletic Association, which has rules about the minimum amount of competitions teams must have to qualify for the postseason. La Rosa said he expects the FHSAA to grant Lee County schools a waiver because they might not meet that minimum.

"Do we have to salvage the fall season?" La Rosa said. "Yes, 100 percent."

However, saving the season will be tricky. There are many factors, first and foremost getting power and water to all the schools. Then the stadiums must be structurally sound, and the fields, which are all natural grass, must be playable.

Some fall sports rely on outside venues for competitions, and most of those in Lee County are closed or damaged by the hurricane. Swimming pools, golf courses and bowling alleys might not open for a while.

The private schools in Southwest Florida can decide their own schedules based on their situations.

In Collier County, the four private schools – Community School, First Baptist, St. John Neumann and Seacrest – plan to return to classes Thursday.

Community School's football team practiced Monday for the first time since Hurricane Ian came through. First Baptist and St. John Neumann plan to resume football Wednesday.

Neumann is the only team with a game scheduled for Friday. However, the school still does not have power, and athletic director Damon Jones said they can't play without it.

Seacrest doesn't have football, but it does have the defending Class 2A state champion volleyball team. That team will head to a tournament at Westminster Christian in Miami this weekend.