Unlike normal Halloween weekends, this year's festivities will include two varsity athletic events in Athens.
Both the football team and volleyball team have home matchups tomorrow, with the football team hosting Louisiana Lafayette at 2 p.m. and the volleyball team hosting Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m.
Jason Corriher, assistant athletics director for Media Relations, said the home football game resulted because of a request from the Mid-American Conference to accommodate a scheduling conflict.
Conference schools are often asked to make adjustments to their non-conference schedule to accommodate the league (MAC) slate
as was the case with Saturday's game with Louisiana he said. It is our preference to play our four non-conference games prior to our conference schedule but circumstances prevented that from happening this year.
Halloween weekend, which is expected to bring the presence of thousands of out-of-town visitors, does not usually include the presence of student-athletes.
Our coaching staffs regularly reinforce the value of good decision-making with our student athletes prior to all weekends
including this one
Corriher said.
Football coach Frank Solich said at his Monday press conference that being home Halloween weekend was not something the team had discussed at that time, but that it would be something the coaching staff would mention.
So far they've handled things well
he said. They've handled Parents Weekend well
they've handled Homecoming well. We've been a team that's zeroed in
and I don't think that anyone will be disruptive as the game approaches because of it being Halloween weekend.
To promote the games that will have to compete with the festivities, Ohio Athletics will offer free tickets to guests of Ohio students, as long as they have valid college IDs from their respective schools. Also, all football tickets will count for entry to the volleyball game later in the evening.
We have a mandatory check-in Halloween night
said volleyball coach Ryan Theis. That's the only night I talk to them about whether there's a curfew or calling me to make sure they're safe. On that night I do that just so I know everything is okay.
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