JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The high school football season will start a little late for one of the First Coast’s biggest programs.

Raines High School announced its game against Miami Central to start the regular season was canceled.

“It would’ve been crazy,” said Raines Alumni Purdy. “It would’ve been standing room only.”

Purdy was expecting to see hundreds of people in the stands for the regular season opener against Miami Central.

But instead, the stadium will sit empty after the game was canceled.

“Plenty of scouts, plenty of news, plenty of coverage,” said Purdy. “To take that away from the kids, that’s really the blow that affects us the most.”

Raines High School posted on X about refunds, saying “some things were out of our hands in the situation” and writing the word canceled over the Miami Central game.

The Raines head coach said Duval County Schools asked to move the game up to two o’clock or to play it on Friday, but Miami Central couldn’t accommodate the last minute change to its travel plans.

DCPS addressed the situation in a statement, saying in part: “Unfortunately, we were unable to coordinate agreed-upon terms and a time with the opposing team that met both our security requirements and safe weather conditions.”

“Not having that game when it comes to the points and rating system, the playoff time, it really affects us in a bad way,” Purdy said.

A coach’s assistant said the team viewed this big game against a nationally-known competitor as a chance to get some momentum going after coming up short at the state championship last year.

“These guys have been preparing for this for a long time,” said Raines Coach’s Assistant D. Will. “They wanted redemption. We all wanted redemption. For this not to happen, it’s crazy.”

Purdy said he wouldn’t have missed game, wanting to see what the Vikings could do against some big competition.

“National powerhouse, coming to the graveyard to try to make a show happen for the city, for the fans, but we’ve been robbed,” Purdy said.

The Raines coach says his impression is that the game won’t count as a forfeit, but instead just a bye on the schedule.