University of Findlay’s football team played Pace University during severe weather causing a delay in the game
By Kendall Westgate, WestgateK@Findlay.edu
During the latest University of Findlay football game on Sept. 9, the team underwent a four hour delay due to dangerous weather.
“The game ended up getting delayed due to lightning in the area,” junior quarterback David Hines said. “We were delayed for about four hours from 2:30-6:30 p.m.”
UF’s football team played against Pace University in Pleasantville, New York starting at 12 p.m. and finished at around 7:45 p.m. UF took the win 40-25 against Pace causing a 1-1 record for their season thus far. However, dangerous weather caused four hours of downtime in New York.
“During the delay, we talked about what we needed to do better. We went over adjustments that needed to take place,” junior wide receiver Devon Holbert said. “We also did a lot of stretching and moving around to keep our body and minds warm.”
They went over film from the game so far to make those adjustments, according to Hines. Since they stayed stretched out, the delay did not affect their game.
“I wouldn’t say the delay affected the way I played as we stayed locked in on the task at hand,” Hines said. “Having the ability to go out and re-warm up before getting back to playing allowed us to refocus. If anything, we were able to clean up any mistakes made up until the break in the game, so that we didn’t make the same mistakes again.”
Besides watching game tapes and stretching, the team also did other things to keep them busy, including studying and naps.
“During the delay, we got so bored that one of our teammates… in the Pharmacy program actually got some productive studying done while we were waiting,” Holbert said.
During the delay, Pace University bought the UF football team Subway for dinner.
“Eating free Subway paid for by our opponent during the delay was pretty cool,” Holbert said. “It was a class act by them and it was really essential to how we played after the delay.”
Despite having a lot of time to pass, the team was able to bond and come out to the field stronger by overcoming any previous mistakes.
“I think if anything, the delay helped us out more than anything,” Hines said. “Being able to correct any mistakes made up to that point and being able to game-plan for the different looks we had seen so far in the second half allowed us to adjust, be successful, and execute when we went back out to finish the game.”
