The blast of snow and ice that wreaked havoc over much of western Washington last week also forced the cancellation of five games or meets for Mercer Island High School athletic teams. But the weather wasn’t the only reason for all the cancellations.

The state championship football game between Bellevue and Kennedy High Schools forced two cancellations Friday thanks to uncertainty of weather and player personnel issues.

Boys basketball

The Mercer Island boys basketball game at Bellevue High school was canceled Friday due to the fact that many of the Wolverine players also compete for the football team, leaving the basketball team’s roster severely depleted. The set of games, that include the freshman and sophomore teams, have been rescheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 31, with the varsity starting at 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball

The girls basketball game to be played last Friday at 7:30 p.m. was originally moved back to a 3:30 p.m. start time so that all players and fans could attend the football game at the Tacoma Dome. The game was canceled due to weather and timing concerns and will be rescheduled for sometime in January.

Two other changes were made to the girls’ schedule posted in last week’s Reporter. The games scheduled for last Wednesday at Bothell and Saturday against Juanita have both been canceled due to the team’s trip to San Diego Dec. 26-30. The league only allows for 20 games per team, per season and the game would have put the team over the maximum number.

Boys swim and dive

The Mercer Island boys swim meet was canceled, in part because of the inclement weather. But despite the fact that the Island roads were clear Thursday evening, league rules dictated that the meet be postponed. Most meets on the league schedule are grouped together for pool usage. If there are a large number of schools that cannot compete, all meets will be rescheduled.

“It was a league decision,” said Mercer Island High School facilities coordinator Ann Meisner. “Since the league block was canceled, we were canceled.”

The swim meet was rescheduled and contested yesterday at Mary Wayte Pool (after Reporter deadline).

Wrestling

Two wrestling meets were cancelled due to inadequate practice time after two school days were cancelled.

“Since none of them could get the minimum number of practices in (because of weather) before the first meet we had to reschedule,” said Meisner.

The Islanders were to host Mount Si last Wednesday and travel to samammish High School on Thursday. Neither meet had been rescheduled at press time Monday afternoon. The Sammamish meet may take while to be worked out as the high school has no athletic director at this time.