The McCallie School bowling team practiced Tuesday on the eve of the start of winterim break.
The Girls Preparatory School team had a mock match to end its season, even though the Bruisers also were scheduled to play Saturday in the TSSAA final four groups at Smyrna, Tenn. Their six seniors, two other bowlers and coach Jenise Gordon will be unavailable because of winterim plans that involved sizable unrefundable investments.
The senior trip to Walt Disney World was to begin early this morning and it ends Sunday, and Gordon is chaperoning an eighth-grade trip to the same place. Two underclassmen have commitments to a driving class that involved $500 or so they wouldn't be able to get back, according to senior leader Payton Leech, a state bowler of the year.
Even some faculty members who might be considered to sub for Gordon are committed elsewhere.
So the Bruisers have informed the TSSAA office that they will take a forfeit instead of sending a stand-in coach with a shell of the team that got them to the state tournament. They won in the quarterfinals at the Smyrna Bowling Center on Jan. 29 -- as did McCallie and the Soddy-Daisy boys -- but about 2 the next morning part of the roof collapsed at the state's largest bowling facility.
With bad weather adding to the logistics of finding another site and getting word to all the coaches, the TSSAA decided to bring the semifinalists back another time -- probably to another center. But last Friday the association announced that most of the Smyrna center would be back in operation and the tournament would end this Saturday.
And the calls began.
"We didn't hear anything (about conflicts) from any of the Division I schools, but we did get feedback with problems from about four Division II schools," TSSAA assistant executive director Matthew Gillespie said Tuesday. "We did come up with an alternate date (just for DII) of Wednesday, February 17, but that created more problems, so we kept it the 13th."
The Wednesday option was based on facility and TSSAA staff availability, avoiding conflicts with other sports' postseasons, Gillespie said.
"It's obviously a difficult situation, and the last thing we wanted was for a team to drop out of the tournament," Gillespie said, "but we had to make a decision that was the best overall for 16 teams."
GPS sophomore starter Kara Maynord has no conflict Saturday and really wanted to compete but understands her school's position.
"I'd still like to go -- I don't like to forfeit -- but it wouldn't be our real team," she said.
"What I told everybody today," Leech said Tuesday evening, "was that we tried and now we just need to enjoy our trip, or wherever different ones are going. Our match today gave us some closure for the season."
"I feel bad for them," said McCallie coach Josh Deitrick, whose undefeated team had no group trip this week. "We're just fortunate that our guys could change their individual plans."
One had a family ski trip and a couple had college visits planned, but now all will be at Smyrna.