The past few weeks have been a blur for Desert Oasis sports, as postponements and cancellations litter the schedule.
On August 24th, the JV and Varsity boys soccer games against Liberty High School were postponed for hours after heavy rain led to limited visibility.
The JV football game was also canceled the same day due to unsafe conditions.
These delays came during “Hurricane Hilary”, a tropical cyclone that made landfall on the Southern California coast around August 21.
Las Vegas, which was in the direct path of the cyclone, experienced tumultuous rains and thunderstorms and was left behind with much flooding.
A week later, the city was hit with another so-called “weather-maker” and experienced extreme downpours, with flooding worse than the fallout from Hurricane Hilary.
During the second storm, many Desert Oasis students were left confused, as the Friday Night Lights score was left up in the air.
Desert Oasis was scheduled to play Shadow Ridge on August 31st with a fun Barbie-themed game.
However, as monsoon-level rain began to fall and lightning strikes were reported in the area, many students were led to believe the game had been canceled.
“I thought it was canceled because of the rain and thunder”, says Halie Mata, an 11th grader at Desert Oasis. “I was pretty upset since it was Barbie-themed…I really wanted to participate. Instead of going to the game I stayed in.”
According to the National Weather Service, any outdoor activities, such as sports games, should be put on hold, postponed, or even canceled in the case of lightning or an approaching storm.
This is also the case for Desert Oasis High School athletics.
“The general rule is if a lightning strike is within 10 miles of the site, the game must be postponed for 30 minutes. The timer resets with every lightning strike inside the 10-mile radius”, explains Orlando Dos Santos, the Athletic Director at Desert Oasis. “ We do everything we can to wait it out and play the game, but sometimes a decision has to be made on canceling the game…In the case of last week, the ‘lightning timer’ reset several times between 5:45 and 7:30. We were ultimately able to start the game just after 8:00.”
There is no precipitation forecasted in the next coming weeks, meaning that the sports schedule should return to normal.
The next home football game is scheduled for September 8th, 2023 against Spring Valley.
