Wintry residue makes sports practice a battle

When you think of high school spring sports, it conjures images of grass just beginning to green, trees beginning to bud and temperatures beginning to climb.

Your ears strain to hear the pop of baseballs hitting leather mitts, footfalls on rubberized tracks and the distinctive sound of clubs rocketing golf balls off practice tees.

You imagine trading in the winter parka for a warm-up jacket and sweat pants.

Monday was the first day of spring sports practice for baseball, softball, track, golf, tennis, boys soccer and track and field, and at most area schools, all seven outdoor sports were forced to either practice indoors or improvise outside.

Most everything outdoors is covered with a blanket of snow and ice, with no spring thaw in the immediate forecast.

East Valley’s first-year boys tennis coach, Colin Storm, spent his first day on the job supervising snow and ice removal from the school’s courts. As a sign of spring optimism in full bloom, tennis rackets hung from the chain-link fence while the team chipped away at a winter’s worth of ice and snow.

“You know, when I was running this all over in my mind about what my first day of practice would be like, this wasn’t even close,” Storm laughed. “I had the guys out shoveling. We managed to clear two courts.

“We’re actually pretty lucky. Now we can bring in a little cart with a plow on it and clear the rest of it. But I hear there’s more snow in the forecast, so who knows.”

The Knights’ track coach Dave McCarty spent Monday mulling ideas to help clear the track. Chopping and shoveling is not an option – it could easily damage the track’s surface.

At Central Valley, first-year boys soccer coach Andres Monrroy had his players outside on a clear practice field while everyone else looked for whatever space they could find. For once, running in the halls was not a ticket to the principal’s office.

“You should have seen this place at 3 p.m.,” athletics secretary Charlotte Stone said. “There were kids practicing everywhere you can imagine. We even had tennis kids hitting balls in the lunch room.”

By far, the area school facing the biggest challenge is Freeman, where winter storms forced not only the school to close but kept area roads closed for prolonged periods.

“We got hammered,” school athletic director Brian Parisotto said. “We had some kids go out and check the baseball field (Monday), and there was still 2 feet of snow on the whole field. Next week I’m afraid we’re going to have to look at doing something to clear the fields.

“I’m looking at finding some other places for our kids to practice. We’ve had trouble in the past being able to play by March 15 in the past. It may be later this year.”