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Washington and Southside high school football fans, players and coaches will have to wait another week for the COVID-19 delayed and shortened football season to kick off.

The Pam Pack was supposed to host Kinston High School Friday night, but the Vikings are in quarantine until March 2^nd.

The game has been rescheduled for March 23^rd, which gives WHS three home games against D.H. Conley, Kinston and South Lenoir within a seven day period.

“We are certainly disappointed but know that everybody is day to day while COVID is still with us,” said Pam Pack head coach Perry Owens, whose team returns the bulk of the talent that helped to a 9-4 record and the second round of the 2A playoffs.  “Our kids are more than ready to get a piece of somebody else, but we will shift our focus and keep trying to get better. That does give us another game with our basketball guys available.” The Pam Pack basketball team is the third seed in the East bracket and is primed for a deep post-season run.

The new football opener is March 5 at North Lenoir.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks home opener against Swansboro has been cancelled because the basketball team is in quarantine. Since around 10 basketball players are on the football team, the non-conference match will not be re-scheduled. That leaves Southside with six games on an already shortened schedule.

“We only have 30 kids in the program this year because of COVID-related concerns and we didn’t think it made sense to reschedule a game and risk injury when it doesn’t affect playoff seeding,” head coach Jeff Carrow said. “COVID has really set us back in all sports here, so it’s just another thing we have to deal with. We are excited to have a season and our guys have been working hard. We are looking forward to getting started.”

Southside’s opener is now March 5 against Northside in a non-conference game. The rivals will meet twice this season because conference member Jones Senior is not fielding a team.