Friday’s snowstorm that prompted the Maine Principals’ Association to reshuffle its basketball tournament schedule gave some teams a little extra time to prepare and, in at least one case, a coach time to reflect.

The Western Class A girls’ semifinals were moved from Friday night to tonight at the Cumberland County Civic Center, a shift that prompted a second move, that of the Western Class A boys’ and girls’ finals to Monday night.

And for Deering Coach Mike Murphy, the postponement couldn’t have come at a better time.

It’s been an emotionally draining week for Murphy, whose mother, Mary, passed away Thursday. He coached the Rams’ quarterfinal victory over Bonny Eagle on Monday knowing her health was slipping, and had a hard time separating his personal life from coaching.

Her wake is scheduled for Sunday with the funeral Monday.

The postponement of Deering’s semifinal against Sanford, Murphy said, “allows me to step back and take a little breather. It’s just been a very crazy week and a half.”

And Murphy isn’t the only coach dealing with a death in the family. John Parent, the father of Sanford Coach Kristy Parent, died last week.

“You’ve got two head coaches who just lost a parent,” said Murphy. “I think that puts these games into perspective.”

Neither Murphy nor Parent are worried about the effects of the postponement.

“My girls are ready to play,” said Parent. “They’ve been ready to play. If you’re not ready to play now, when will you be?”

The only concern is that there might be a small emotional letdown for the players who were ready to go on Friday.

Parent said her team was following a schedule to play Friday night. Thursday, for example, “We watched inspirational movies,” she said.

Such as? “Hoosiers, of course,” she said of the Gene Hackman movie about the Indiana state tournament.

The MPA doesn’t take tournament postponements lightly. They are known for playing the postseason in all kinds of inclement weather. But Friday’s storm just kept getting worse, and the call was made at 11 a.m. to change the schedule.

“Based on the weather forecast, what we were watching, it was the right move,” said Mike Burnham, an MPA assistant executive director.

Amy Vachon, the McAuley coach, said she awoke Friday expecting to play even with the storm.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it was a bad decision,” she said. “But historically (the MPA) never calls a game. You just have to adapt.”

The move of the Western Class A girls’ semifinals to tonight meant the Western Class A finals for boys and girls were moving to Monday, a move that both boys’ coaches — Bob Brown at Cheverus and Phil Bourassa at Bonny Eagle — liked.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt us,” said Brown. “We haven’t been playing well and we need to fix some things. We can now practice Saturday and Sunday, and that’s not a negative for us.”

Bourassa said the Scots also will practice those days.

“There are a million things you can work on to prepare for a team like that,” he said. “An extra day or two of practice certainly won’t hurt.

“This is just the way it is with New England weather.”

The Eastern Class A boys’ and girls’ finals at the Augusta Civic Center also were moved to Monday, meaning winning teams will have fewer days to prepare for the state finals March 5.

“That’s all right,” said Brown. “If we had played on Saturday night, that would have given us a week between games, and that’s a long time when you’re used to playing every two, three days.”

And the postponement also will allow the Western Class A girls’ semifinal winners to have a day of practice before the regional championship game, something their coaches have been saying is needed for years.

“Maybe Mother Nature is telling the MPA that it’s not fair that we have to play Friday-Saturday,” said Gorham Coach Laughn Berthiaume.

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:

mlowe@pressherald.com