North Florida Christian head coach Brent Hill started coaching in 1998 and he has never seen a situation quite like what happened Friday night against FAMU DRS.
The game between the Eagles and Baby Rattlers was scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m., but an unknown individual called the Florida Officials Association and told them the game was canceled. Despite both teams being in pads and ready to play under the lights at Bragg Memorial Stadium, no official showed up for kickoff and neither school was informed of the situation.
“I’ve never experienced that,” Hill told the Democrat. “I guess there’s always an opportunity for something different to happen each and every week.”
Both teams discussed their options and decided to start the game with the coaching staff acting as officials until one referee showed up at the end of the first quarter. Members of the staff still acted as line judges while the head referee took control of the game.
This was FAMU DRS’s first game under the new interim head coach Willie Ferrell after former coach Alex Williams left the program for a role as head basketball coach at Godby.
The game was played and will be counted as a regular season game, with NFC beating FAMU DRS 51-0.
“It was a situation where you doing it for the kids and thankful no one was injured,” Hill said.
Big Bend scoreboard:Updates from Big Bend week 7 high school football games
Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney