With the impending arrival of Hurricane Ike on the Texas Gulf Coast, SWAC schools Texas Southern and Prairie View have canceled on-campus athletic events. Texas Southern University has postponed all home athletic events and suspended all team travel from Friday, Sept. 12 through Sunday, Sept. 14 due to the anticipation of severe weather conditions brought on by Hurricane Ike. The women’s soccer game scheduled for Friday, Sept. 12 at Texas Women’s University has been cancelled. The home soccer match originally scheduled for Sunday against Huston Tillotson has been rescheduled for Monday, Sept. 15 at 4:00 p.m. Travel for the volleyball team to participate in the Prairie View A&M Invitational on Friday and Saturday has been suspended. The Tigers’ football team departed Thursday morning for Sacramento, Ca. for their Saturday night game vs. Shaw. At a time like this, it is critically important for us to focus on the safety and welfare of our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” said TSU athletic director Charles McClelland.
Prairie View A&M University athletics officials have announced that all PVAMU athletic events scheduled for Friday, Sept. 12th thru Monday, Sept. 15th have been postponed until further notice. “In preparation for the possibility of inclement weather over the course of the coming days we’ve decided to suspend all of our athletics events,†said PVAMU’s Fred Washington. “The safety of our student-athletes as well as our athletics staff is always at the fore front of our decisions and at this time we feel this is the appropriate action to take with the circumstances that have been presented to us.†The Prairie View A&M Lady Panther volleyball team was scheduled to host the Lady Panther Invitational Volleyball Tournament this weekend on campus while the Lady Panthers soccer team was set to participate in outings versus Lamar University as well as Louisiana Tech on Friday, Sept. 12th and Sunday, Sept. 14th respectively. PVAMU’s men’s and women’s cross country teams were scheduled to participate in meets at Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 13th. Both meets have also been cancelled at this time. The Prairie View A&M Panthers football game against Sam Houston State has been mutually agreed upon to be postponed until next season. It was decided by both sides that it’s in the best interest of the student-athletes, student body as well as fans that the contest not be played this weekend with Hurricane Ike looming in the Gulf.
