McMain's canceled football season caused scheduling chaos. Here's how teams are handling it.

Several local prep football teams have unexpected openings in their schedules after McMain canceled its 2023 season and the Jefferson Parish School Board decided in March to close Grace King and Helen Cox high schools.

Some schools had games scheduled against more than one of those opponents. Belle Chasse and M.L. King each had games against Cox and McMain on the schedule. M.L. King replaced its Week 7 game against Cox with a game against Chalmette.

Chalmette had an opening after Grace King was set to close.

A New Orleans high school has been forced to cancel its football season by the LHSAA

Eleanor McMain, a charter high school in uptown New Orleans, will not be allowed to field a football team next school year, according to a rec…

Most schools set their schedules in two-year increments, and those schedules are set whenever the LHSAA completes its every-other-year redistricting process. Last season was the first year in the two-year cycle, making it more difficult for some schools to find games for the upcoming season.

De La Salle substituted a Week 9 district game against McMain with a nondistrict game against St. Augustine, which had an open date for that week last season. Other District 9-4A schools to find a replacement for McMain were Riverdale (which will face Houma Christian in Week 7) and Kenner Discovery (Fisher in Week 8). Booker T. Washington was scheduled to face McMain in Week 6.

John Ehret and Higgins will face each other in Week 6 after each was scheduled to face Grace King and Helen Cox, respectively, that week. In Week 1, Patrick Taylor and Ellender will face each other after those schools also were scheduled to face Grace King and Helen Cox, respectively.

Bonnabel replaced McMain in Week 5 with a game against Jefferson Rise. The Bruins have another opening on the schedule with the void left by Grace King in Week 8.

Other New Orleans area schools affected by the changes include Douglass, East Jefferson, Haynes, Kennedy, L.B. Landry, McDonogh 35, Northlake Christian, Riverdale, Shaw, West Jefferson and Willow. Those schools are not known to have found a replacement for each school’s canceled game.