Recent weather patterns have made the first week of Wildcat fall sports a difficult one.
Lightning on Friday postponed the football team's scrimmage to Monday, but softball, volleyball and cross Country started full speed ahead a day earlier last week with heat indexes above the 100 degree mark..
To their credit all teams performed well and no one got hurt, but they did learn where they need work.
Richmond Hill softball avenged their opening day loss to McIntosh County Academy when they hosted the same team at Lady Wildcat Field and forged a come from behind 4-3 win. Lauren Simerly got the start again against the Lady Buccaneers but this time she got the win - thanks to some late inning base running heroics and Buccaneer miscues.
After falling behind early, Richmond Hill tied the score in the sixth inning 3-3 when Margaret Goolsby scored on a throwing error by the MCA catcher.
In the bottom of the seventh, Amy Robben led off with a walk, stole second, then scored the winning run after Cheyenne Marsh’s hard shot to second base was misplayed allowing the walk-off error.
“It was a great team victory. We did not play our best, but we played as a team and never gave up,” said head coach Sean Strickland afterward. The Lady Cats are now 1-1 on the young season and will start their conquest of Region 2A-AAAA in earnest at home on Thursday Aug. 26 at 5:45 pm.
Richmond Hill volleyball got its season started at home with a match split against Toombs County and South Effingham. The Lady Wildcats defeated Toombs two games to none, 25-16, 25-21. After Toombs was able to take the second set from South Effingham the Lady Wildcats might have been a bit overconfident.
“(We're) very disappointed in losing to South Effingham” said head coach Ashleigh Davis-Lee afterward. SEHS won 12-25 in the first game and 11-25 in the second. Aside from the game two disappointment Davis-Lee felt positive about her teams performance and particularly the performance of Breanna Cota, who had 10 aces and 2 kills against Toombs.
The team played Effingham County and Bluffton High School on Tuesday night, then travel to Brunswick on Thursday Aug. 26 for a 5 p.m. start facing Camden County and the hosts. Brunswick will be their first region 2A-AAAA competition.
Cross Country held what head coach Levi Sybert appropriately called a “warm up” meet. The outside air temperature was 92 degrees, making the three mile trek against runners from Wayne County, South Effingham, Camden, Effingham, Bradwell, and Ware even more difficult.
Sybert praised his teams for working through the heat and while the results across the board could be improved on,  he felt that for now times and places are irrelevant. Sybert talks to his teams more about how the individual runners times were made rather than what they were. He wants both the boys and girls teams to improve gradually, understanding that there is 10 weeks until the region meet.
“We were just looking for racing experience more than anything. We have a bigger meet coming up Saturday morning” said Sybert after the Wayne County meet.
Saturday Aug. 28 the Wildcats will be at Daffin park in Savannah for the Saucony XC Invite that starts at 8 a.m.

Logan covers RHHS sports for the Bryan County News.