Even though their state tournaments haven’t started yet, the boys and girls basketball teams at Knoxville High School each face an elimination game of a sort on Thursday night.

The school is scheduled to hold its Coaches vs. Cancer games against Chariton; the recent severe weather has twice forced the postponement of the contests, and some of the daytime events normally held on the Saturday of the game have been held at other times or called off.

Girls basketball coach Jim Uitermarkt tells KNIA/KRLS News if Coaches vs. Cancer doesn’t come off as planned this week, it too will have to be cancelled for this year.

“It’s kind of do or die time in terms of that game; if we don’t get it in on Thursday, there’s no other possibilities for a make-up,” Uitermarkt says.

“I see the long-range forecast, it just looks cold that day; so we’re going to hope that that’s just the case…not as cold as it has been, but hopefully we’ll be able to do all the stuff that we had planned.”

Still on the schedule are a silent auction throughout the evening, promotional fundraisers such as the rubber duck toss and :46 sprint through the crowd; a tribute to cancer survivors; and the presentation of donor checks to Coaches vs. Cancer.

The games are once again set to start with the girls at 6:15 p.m. and the boys sometime around 8:00 p.m. Both will be heard live on AM 1320/FM 94.3/FM 95.3 KNIA.

For more on the Coaches vs. Cancer games, tune in to today’s edition of Let’s Talk Knoxville.