As the beginning of spring sports season quickly approached, so did the winter season’s largest snowstorm. Winter storm “Q” brought enough snow to hinder tryouts and practices for spring sports.
“Well, it’s always treacherous the first part of the year, and that’s frustrating,” track coach Mr. Ryan Banta said.
Conditions on the fields and track forced teams indoors for their first practices of the season, while District games for boys and girls varsity basketball limited the space available for use.
“One of the things that’s the most difficult is that this year we have a unique situation where basketball is actually still playing,” Banta said. “In previous years basketball hasn’t gone as late but this season is a week longer than it has ever been. That’s not because the basketball team is doing better, which they are, but it’s because MSHSAA has changed the calendar for basketball. That’s already a problem because volleyball, soccer, track, baseball, we’re all looking for space.”
Due to the competition for available practice space, coaches found it necessary to improvise during the first week of the spring sports season.
“The first couple days weren’t great,” girls varsity soccer coach Mr. John Theobald said. “We were trying to run practice in the Social Studies Commons, but it’s a really small space. We just try to adjust and work with what we have.”
After the first practices with major space issues, the soccer team rescheduled practices to later times to take advantage of empty gym space. Though the solution was beneficial for some, it posed some problems for younger players, as they needed to find rides back to school to attend tryouts, according to Theobald.
The winter storms and weather changes affected other teams as well, though in different ways. According to Banta, the track team practiced in the commons and the hallways, as well as going outdoors despite the weather.
“Most of the things we’ve done so far are built into the plan, so it hasn’t been altered so much; however where we do it has been,” Banta said. “That’s a little frustrating because we we try to find any soft surface we can but there’s not a lot of carpet in the building.”
Even though the workout schedule hasn’t changed much, Banta said there are downfalls to the situation.
“It’s frustrating for us, and it’s frustrating for the kids because they want to get after it and really do the sports, as opposed to just random calisthenics, lifting and stuff like that,” Banta said
Junior Elise Gibson is a distance runner on the track team. During the week of tryouts, Gibson and other distance runners used the outdoor course during practice.
“For track runners it’s not that different; it’s just cold and wet,” Gibson said. “Distance runners have to use the course, but it’s hard because it’s so muddy, so we use the road or the track, and it’s harder on your knees.”
The baseball teams were also forced to remain indoors during the week of tryouts due to unfit field conditions.
“We haven’t been able to get outside, so the coaches don’t have an accurate evaluation of each player, and it will be hard to make cuts,” sophomore Austin Mischel said.
Throughout the week, the teams practiced at various times during the evenings. The teams focused on hitting, throwing, fielding fundamentals and bunt defenses the best they could indoors, according to senior Alex Yoffie.
“The winter weather obviously stopped us from getting outside this last week, but I do not think it will have any lasting impact on our season,” Yoffie said. “We have been throwing and hitting for several months now, so pushing back when we get out on the field shouldn’t matter. I think that teams who have not been working all winter will be affected a lot more than us.”
Coaches and athletes from each team have different perspectives on how the winter weather will affect them in the totality of their seasons.
“We’re usually better off than most people, so I’m not concerned. Our team has a lot of talent,” Banta said. “There are other schools that probably don’t have alternate plans like we do. Our coaches do a really good job of making sure we have all the bases covered so we can get close to as much done inside as we were going to do outside.”
Though the weather presents issue to teams early on in their respective seasons, coaches do not predict major long-term issues.
“The weather will definitely have an effect on the first couple games just because we won’t have enough time to build tact as a team, but by the second week, it won’t be an issue,” Theobald said.
