Ottawa may strike out to end season

The Ottawa Pirates will not play football, again, Friday night, locked out by a teachers’ strike now in its third week. And if school is not back in session Friday, the season will likely be over for the Pirates.
IHSA mandates stipulate in a strike situation lasting seven calendar days, excluding Sundays, a football team must have three organized school practices. If the strike runs 14 calendar days, the team must conduct five organized practices before it can be allowed to play due to safety reasons.
Though the players may hold their own practices during a strike, they are not  considered organized practices without their coaches, who are unable to run practices during a strike.
According to the Ottawa Times, school must be in session Friday in order for the Pirates to get their game in against Streator on Oct. 23. Ottawa has already forfeited games to L-P and Morris and will do so again Friday vs. Geneseo.
• An Erie game: A strange set of circumstances caused Fulton to postpone Friday’s homecoming football game against Erie-Prophetstown due to an asbestos leak at Fulton High School. Fulton had to send its students home from school Friday after a patch of vinyl asbestos floor tile was removed, compromising the safety of the building.
The Steamers’ locker room and equipment is located near the compromised area and the team was not able to retrieve its equipment on Monday. School officials discussed playing a Monday game at Erie or Prophetstown, but Fulton was still unable to get to into its locker room.
The game goes down as a 1-0 forfeit for Erie-Prophetstown, with E-P improving to 3-4 and Fulton eliminated from playoff contention at 2-5.
Fulton is scheduled to play at St. Bede Saturday.
• PHS homecoming: Princeton High School fans will be happy to hear the Tigers are coming back home Friday — home to Bryant Field, but more specifically back to the traditional home west sidelines. Head football coach and athletic director Dave Moore said the renovation on the west side bleachers has been completed, clearing more room on the sidelines between the field and stands.
The home team moved across the field beginning with the 2008 season to the east sidelines, which had much more space, including eight lanes of track, between the team bench and bleachers. Many of the longtime diehard PHS fans, however, stayed behind in the west bleachers, rubbing shoulders with fans from the visiting team.
Without the renovations to the west bleachers, PHS would not have been allowed to host a playoff game due to IHSA safety regulations that require a certain  distance between the field the bleachers.
• Poll watching: Bureau Valley fell four spots in this week’s AP 2A poll to No. 9. Rated as high as No. 1, the Storm had been fifth a week ago before losing to No. 1 Morrison. With its win over Sterling Newman, Amboy/LaMoille flip-flopped places with the Storm, taking over at No. 5.
By virtue of its first win over Geneseo in 90 years, LaSalle-Peru moved into the 5A  rankings at No. 10. Other ranked area teams include IVC, seventh, Geneseo, eighth, and Mendota, 11th in 4A, and Sterling, 11th in 5A and Annawan/Wethersfield, 13th in 2A.
Former Princeton coach Dave Smith has his Mt. Zion Braves at 7-0 for the second straight year, ranked third in  4A. Mt. Zion went 10-0 in 2008 before falling to Bloomington in the 4A playoffs.
• Playoff picture: Four Big Rivers teams have become playoff eligible, including Morrison (7-0), Amboy/LaMoille (6-1), Bureau Valley (5-2) and Sterling Newman (5-2). Riverdale (4-3) and Erie/Prophetstown (3-4) remain eligible.
In the NCIC, there  are four teams from the Reagan — L-P (6-1), Sterling (5-2), Geneseo (5-2) — and two teams from the Lincoln —  IVC (7-0) and Mendota (6-1) who have qualified with Princeton (4-3), Hall (3-4), Rock Falls and Morris (3-4) still eligible.
Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.