High school sports in Southwest Louisiana will return to normal over the next couple of days after a rare major winter storm blanketed the area with several inches of snow.

The Calcasieu Parish School Board authorized teams to resume practices and games today. Basketball and soccer teams have not practiced or played games since Monday because snow and ice made travel unsafe.

Some teams will play today as scheduled today while others chose to wait an extra day, postpone or outright cancel.

One big matchup that moved from today to Saturday is the District 3-5A girls basketball showdown between Barbe (20-2) and Sulphur (18-2). The Bucs and Tors are ranked fifth and ninth, respectively, in the Non-select Division I power ratings. They will play at 3 p.m. at Sulphur High School.

“It feels good,” Sulphur girls basketball head coach Matt LeBato said about being able to resume team activities. “We were really excited about this half of the year.

“We played a lot of tournaments in November and late December. It was time to practice two days and play. We had to put it on a back burner for another week but we are ready to practice and lock in.

“We were not sure what Friday was going to look like, so we tried to get ahead of everybody for a Saturday game. It should be a good game if we get a day of practice in.”

The teams played two weeks ago at Barbe with the Bucs winning the nondistrict game 66-45.

“We are excited about our game,” LeBato said. “It should be a good atmosphere and two good teams.”

Also moved to Saturday is the District 5-2A girls basketball game when Welsh hosts Lake Arthur.

The Washington-Marion boys basketball team will host Lake Charles College Prep on Saturday as originally scheduled.

Canceled games for today include Reeves-LaGrange and W-M versus St. Louis Catholic girls basketball and Hackberry-Basile boys basketball. But the boys game between St. Louis and W-M will be played today at Raynaud Middle School.

Games that have been confirmed for today include Grand Lake at Bell City, Elizabeth at Fairview, Oakdale at Holy Savior Menard, Midland at Lacassine boys and Barbe will host Sulphur in a boys nondistrict game.

Soccer

There isn’t much time left to reschedule games because the regular season ends on Monday.

The Barbe girls moved the home nondistrict game with Sam Houston to Monday, while the Sam Houston boy moved their district game with David Thibodaux to noon Saturday, if the Broncos’ opponent gets approval to travel.

The Sulphur Tors are trying to reschedule their district game with Southside and will host Lafayette Christian at noon Saturday, while the Sulphur girls will play at Southside at 1 p.m. Sunday.