Given the past year and a half, every student athlete and fan is having to be adaptable as the pandemic has wrought havoc on scheduling.
While North Carolina athletic sports began with a regular season finally this fall, there have been plenty of changes as the pandemic has ramped up over the past month due to spread of the new Delta variant.
This week was no different, with schedule changes both on local fields and courts and within the community.
First off, Swain sports had the following changes:
Tuesday's volleyball match with Robbinsville was postponed and rescheduled to Sept. 20 given Robbinsville having to cancel its matches across the board due to an outbreak of cases among players and in the community.
Swain County football took a hit with the schools announcing Tuesday an athlete on the JV football team tested positive. Thus, the school cancelled the Cherokee game Thursday with no makeup date at this time.
The team's game next Thursday, Sept. 9 has also been postponed since they were set to play against Robbinsville.
While varsity's home game against Franklin this Friday is still scheduled, next week's game against Life Christian has been cancelled.
Community events cancelled
A list of events that were planned this month were cancelled this past week due to the increase in Covid spread.
For the second year in a row, local animal rescue PAWS had to call off its biggest fundraising event of the year, the PAWS Wine Tasting and Silent Auction has been postponed with an auction moving online on Facebook.
After just a few face-to-face meetings, Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society made the decision as well to cancel its next event which was scheduled today, also citing the increase in cases and concern over spread.