THOMASVILLE — Two weeks into the regular season and the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets are already having to reshuffle its schedule again.

Due to the Tift County football program being sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic, this week’s Tift-Central game was canceled following last Friday’s Tift-Valdosta game, which was also canceled.

Instead of a home game this week, Central will hit the road for a trip to Wakulla (Fla.) Friday night for another non-region game. While this game helps the Yellow Jackets avoid a second off week in the first three weeks of the season, it does take away one of Central’s five home games for the season. The Yellow Jackets will now only have four home games, though Wakulla will come to Thomas County Stadium next year.

“It’s not going to be just a one year band-aid fix. We’re going to roll them into our normal schedule from here on out,” Central coach Ashley Henderson said. “The thought process there is, right now it’s a game and it’s a game we want to get into; we want to get into this series and also we just don’t know what’s going to happen down the road, with the Albany schools or anybody else.”

Central’s first home game will not be until Oct. 9 against Callaway.

The ongoing pandemic has thrown all Georgia High School Association (GHSA) teams a curveball this season with regards to scheduling. The GHSA canceled both preseason scrimmages and delayed the start of the season by two weeks. This led to many schools having to adjust their initial schedules, including Central. The Yellow Jackets’ new-look schedule included an open week for week one before last Friday’s 34-7 loss to rival Thomasville.

The rest of Central’s schedule is up in the air as well. The Dougherty County Schools System suspended fall sports activities through September. Dougherty, Monroe and Westover are in Region 1-AAAA with Bainbridge, Cairo and Central. Their status for the rest of the season remains unknown.

“As far as the scenarios of who was looking, home, away and things like that, this is what’s best for us,” Henderson said. “Hopefully, everybody in Tifton gets well, everybody in Tift County gets well. It’s just unfortunate. But it’s kind of the world we’re in right now.”