As Florda was approached by Hurricane Irma, many of its citizens were scattering to markets and gas stations in order to prepare for the the devastation that was expected to come. Like many other Floridians, multiple athletes had to evacuate from their homes, due to major flooding, destruction, and debris. As a result, a lot of games were either postponed or canceled, as well as practices. Countless teams found themselves stranded in different states around the U.S due to unavailability of flights, having no clue when they would return to Florida.

One of the most well known NFL teams in Florida, the Miami Dolphins, posted a tweet on September 8th that all the coaches, staff, and their families would be flown out to Los Angeles because of the destruction of Irma. Since their game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was postponed, they flew to L.A to practice before their game on September 18 with the Los Angeles Chargers. In addition, a countless amount of universities like FIU, FSU and UCF canceled their football games or relocated them. FIU moved their football game to Birmingham, Alabama and UCF was forced to reschedule their game with Georgia Tech University to Sept. 16. Additionally, the University of Miami vs. Florida State game was rescheduled from September 16th to Oct.7.

“We made the collective decision that we simply cannot put our student-athletes, coaches and staff in danger traveling to and from contests.” University of Miami athletic director Blake James said.

Not only did Irma affect many college and NFL games, but it affected the athletic programs at Gables also. Due to the weather conditions, the swimming teams had to cancel two of their meets. They cancelled their meet against Southwest on Sept.5, and the meet with South Miami that was scheduled to take place on Sept.12. As for the girls volleyball team, they had to cancel a majority of their junior varsity and varsity games. Consequently, the varsity team has to play back to back games over the next few weeks. The wrestling team also had to cancel most of their practices along with the cross-country team.

“Usually, wrestling practice is from 2:20 to 5. Since getting back we’ve been grinding every day, now ’till the end of the season. It’ll pay off but it’s demanding with AP classes and a life outside the program. In the end, Irma was ironically the calm before the storm,” junior Victor Hernandez said.

In Hurricane Irma’s aftermath, many college football teams like FSU and UF decided to go along with their future games and not reschedule old ones. Even though Hurricane Irma has caused an unfortunate delay on sports centered in Florida, slowly but surely, everything will go back to the way it was before Irma hit.