Augusta-El Dorado football game called off because of threat

Friday’s El Dorado High home football game against Augusta was called off by El Dorado school district officials because of a threat made on Twitter.

El Dorado school officials would not comment because of the police investigation. Augusta athletic director Doug Law told The Eagle that if it is resolved in time, the game will be played at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Augusta team was at BG Products Veterans Stadium in El Dorado when police entered its locker room. At about 5:10 p.m., 15 minutes before Augusta planned to start warming up on the field, police checked each of the Orioles’ football bags, coach Jason Filbeck said.

“We were listening to music and getting pumped up and suddenly police are escorting them out,” Filbeck said. “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.’”

El Dorado police did not respond to an interview request.

Filbeck said police showed him a tweet from “Foxhound El Dorado” that warned, “We will strike our first target tonight at the football game #eldorado #partofthepride”

Filbeck said he hoped at the time the person who wrote the tweet would come forward and explain it so the game could be played.

The Twitter account was suspended by early evening. Earlier, the person had tweeted that the account was created to pull pranks and nothing bigger.

Nichols, the El Dorado coach, said his team hadn’t yet left the school for the stadium at 5 p.m. when the Wildcats were told about a situation.

Filbeck said Augusta athletic director Doug Law suggested moving the game to Augusta, but police were concerned the threat would follow.

“Football’s not like other sports that you get to play two, three times a week,” Filbeck said. “We’re excited to play our neighboring town. A lot of the kids know each other.”

Nichols added: “I don’t want to not play the game. It’s one of our rivals…. But it’s out of my hands.”

El Dorado lost its opening game at Mulvane 28-12 last Friday. Augusta won its opener, beating visiting Wellington 25-14.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 7:57 AM with the headline "Augusta-El Dorado football game called off because of threat."