Hurricane Isaac’s winds have blown away their first high school football game.

St. Aloysius and Hinds AHS coaches announced Tuesday night that they have postponed this Friday’s game until Oct. 19, when both teams have an open date.

St. Al coach B.J. Smithhart said a combination of factors, including the uncertain path of the storm and a lack of practice time, led to the decision to make the early postponement. St. Al has canceled classes today and Thursday.

“We’re not going to be able to be at school Wednesday or Thursday, and we couldn’t practice. So I didn’t think it was safe for our players,” Smithhart said. “We also don’t know what this storm is going to do. If we wait and call it Friday, and that’s a chance of that, why not just say it now?”

Vicksburg Warren School District officials were holding off on a decision to postpone Friday’s football games. They have already scuttled classes for today and

Thursday, along with Thursday’s sports schedule of one volleyball game, two softball games and a swim meet. Warren Central is scheduled to host Hattiesburg in football on Friday night, and Vicksburg is to play Richwood, La.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association said in a statement Tuesday that it is allowing its member schools to decide whether to postpone or not, rather than making a statewide ruling.

Porters Chapel Academy is also waiting to decide whether to play its home opener against Ben’s Ford.

Hinds Community College has postponed its Thursday night football opener against Mississippi Delta until Saturday. No time has been set.

Alcorn State’s game against Grambling in Shreveport Saturday is still on, according to the school’s website.

Friday’s postponement will give St. Al and Hinds AHS an early bye week, but it’s no coincidence they had a mutual date available. Mid-October date was when they were supposed to play when they moved into the same region in 2011. Smithhart and Hinds AHS coach Michael Fields both preferred a bye week later in the season, so they swapped the two dates.

The rainout comes at a bad time for Hinds, which won its first two games and was hoping to continue a strong start against a St. Al team that’s 0-2. Fields said he understood and agreed with the logic behind postponing the game, but was disappointed from a purely football standpoint.

“We were getting in a groove, and it throws you out of it,” Fields said. “What it all comes down to is, it’s all about being a student-athlete and being in school. If you’re not in school, you can’t play.”