Six games featuring Cobb County schools were either rescheduled or relocated in light of the floods that have cut down on some teams' practice schedules, or rendered their fields unplayable.

As floodwaters rose Monday afternoon, all extracurricular activities were cancelled within the Cobb County School District were closed. Schools were then closed altogether Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving coaches and teams with little time to bring the players together.

With many teams entering the heart of their region schedules, the main reason for most of the changes was to allow the teams more time to practice and prepare. One change included Pope's game at Region 6AAAAA rival Kell, which was moved to Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Both squads are 0-3 in the region standings and a win could create a big momentum swing for the victor in the race for a playoff spot.

"We decided to change the date to give us and them another day to prepare," Kell coach Derek Cook said. "If we'd have stayed with Friday, then we'd have had only one day of practice. With preparation like that, you're not going to set the world on fire, offensively or defensively. It probably would've been a pretty sloppy game.

"Because this game is so important for both teams, we wanted our programs to be as ready as possible. Plus, the extra day allows the field to dry more, which is an added benefit."

Two more Region 6AAAAA games were also altered.

Campbell was originally scheduled to host Roswell on Friday, but the surface at Richard McDaniel Stadium could not be made suitable in time and no other local facility was available. As a result, the home teams swapped places and the game was shifted to the north Fulton school.

"Our field is in terrible shape and we didn't want anybody to get hurt playing on it," Campbell coach T.K. Dodd said. "To get a third party involved to use their facilities would have been too much of a hassle. Roswell has SprinTurf, and it wasn't too difficult for them to get the field ready, so we accepted their offer to play there."

Walton will host Alpharetta four days later than planned when their game kicks off Tuesday at Raider Valley.

"We hadn't practiced all week and we felt it wasn't prudent to have the game on Friday night," Walton coach Rocky Hidalgo said. "We felt the players had a right to be prepared to play, and Saturday didn't work for Alpharetta, while (Yom Kippur on) Monday is a Jewish holiday for a lot of our guys. Tuesday just worked out.

"We also didn't want to push it to our bye week next Friday and then have to play six straight tough games in a row."

Like the Pope-Kell game, South Cobb's Region 5AAAAA matchup at McEachern will also be played Saturday, kicking off at 1 p.m.

The Indians had designated the game as their homecoming game, so lots of preparation, money and materials had gone into the weekend. The two teams decided on the afternoon start with homecoming festivities set for the afternoon.

The postponement also served as a goodwill gesture to the fans of both schools, which are in two of the areas - Powder Springs and Austell - hit hardest by the floods.

"It's my understanding that South Cobb had a handful of players displaced by the flood," McEachern coach Kyle Hockman said. "We wanted to do right by them and give those families some time to recover. We also felt like an extra day of game planning would help both teams."

Pebblebrook will go a full week before playing its scheduled game at Region 4AAAAA opponent Chapel Hill when the game kicks off Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Douglasville.

It was an inevitability when the Douglas County School System cancelled classes through Friday.

"Our entire region had an off week next week, and since Douglas County is a region that was hit so hard by the rain and the flooding, we just moved it to next week," Pebblebrook coach Randall Smith said. "It's tough to do because we had won two in a row and we had some momentum and excitement going. Now, we have to regroup and adjust to it."

Even Allatoona's non-region game Friday in the far northwest Georgia city of Fort Oglethorpe was affected by the floods. The Buccaneers' game at Lakeview, located about 10 miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn., was postponed until 1 p.m. Saturday.