Tomorrow is supposed to be a very big day for many high school soccer and field hockey teams with dozens of tournaments scheduled all across the area. But an unwanted visitor named Hanna just might wash out the entire schedule -- football games and all.

With Tropical Storm Hanna expected to blow through central Maryland late tonight and tomorrow, heavy rain and high winds could make it impossible to play anything even on artificial turf.

Hanna’s timing really stinks, because some of these soccer and hockey tournaments feature excellent matchups and many of them may not be able to be rescheduled. It takes a lot of work to run a tournament and even more to move one – along with a little luck to find the same hole in the schedule for all the teams involved.

Teams already have two games scheduled for most weeks during the season, so to add a tournament would bring the week total to four, but public school soccer and field hockey teams are not allowed to play four games in a single week.

Most of the tournaments, and the football games, scheduled to be played in Baltimore County have been canceled or postponed. County coordinator of athletics Ron Belinko said he has recommended it

"Why wait until tomorrow morning when it’s raining," said Belinko. "This forecast looks like it’s 150 percent certain."

In Eastern Baltimore County and other coastal communities, bad memories remain of the last tropical system that washed out high school games – Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

During her visit to Maryland, Isabel, which came ashore in North Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane, caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage with a storm surge that flooded coastal areas from Havre de Grace to Annapolis.

But for the comparatively insignificant world of high school sports, Isabel wasn’t as damaging to the schedule as Hanna might be. Isabel struck on a Thursday night and Friday, Sept. 18 and 19. Schools closed both days, but Isabel didn’t hit a big tournament weekend. Regular-season games are more easily rescheduled.

Fortunately, it appears that Hanna will move out of here quickly, bringing a sunny Sunday to dry fields for next week's competition. We sure don't want to do this again next week, so here’s hoping Hanna takes her younger siblings Ike and Josephine with her.

--Katherine Dunn