A high school football game in Kansas was canceled after a purported terror threat was made over social media on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
As reported by CBS affiliate KWCH and The Wichita Eagle, the scheduled game between El Dorado and Augusta was called off after an unspecified threat was called in relation to the contest at El Dorado’s BG Products Veterans Stadium.
Few details about the threat have been released due to an ongoing investigation by El Dorado police, though Augusta coaches and players confirmed to the Eagle that they were stopped before heading on to the field for a pregame warmup and had their bags searched at approximately 5:10 p.m.
“We were listening to music and getting pumped up and suddenly police are escorting them out,” Augusta coach Jason Filbeck told The Eagle. “They tried to tell us to leave, but I said no because one of our buses was already gone. ‘Let’s stay locked up in the locker room and wait.’
“Eventually the wait turned into canceling the game and, ‘You guys go home.’ … Football’s not like other sports that you get to play two, three times a week. We’re excited to play our neighboring town. A lot of the kids know each other.”
KWCH has reported that the threat was related to a Tweet released by the owner of the account titled @FoxhoundEldo, which initially released the following:
“We will strike our first target tonight at the football game#eldorado#partofthepride“
The Tweet has since become unavailable because the entire @FoxhoundEldo account has been suspended. Before it was removed from Twitter, its unidentified owner attempted to walk back from the apparent threat, claiming that it was just one of a number of hoaxes put forward by the account.
If it was an elaborate hoax, El Dorado police were not willing to take any chances, blockading all the entrances to Veterans Stadium with the help of their counterparts from the Butler Community College police department, as live tweeted by KWCH reporter Emily Griffin.
zWhile there are no remaining credible threats at El Dorado, that doesn’t mean that whoever is held responsible for the initial threat won’t be made legally accountable. Meanwhile, the two teams are left to pick up the pieces, weighing whether to reschedule the game as the season continues to get busier by the day. It’s possible that the matchup could be contested Saturday. If it isn’t, it’s anyone’s guess if it will be played at all.
“I don’t want to not play the game,” El Dorado coach Jason Nichols told The Eagle. “It’s one of our rivals…. But it’s out of my hands.”