I have been talking with all of the area athletic directors the past week or so about spring sports.

That might not seem odd considering winter sports are coming to a close, but trust me the topic of conversation is anything but ordinary.

We have been talking about snow, and specifically, what are we going to do when the games begin in about three weeks.

I don’t see any major warm-up in our near feature, so games that are slated to begin in a matter of a few weeks are more than likely are not going to be played.

I am to the point where I am thinking there will be no athletic events contested in the month of March for the first time in my 30-plus years of covering high school sports in southwest Michigan.

Heck, another bout of snow and frigid temperatures and the first couple of weeks of April could be in jeopardy.

After all, we have to melt the snow that is on the ground now and then thaw out the frozen ground beneath the surfaces.

There seems to be some disagreement on  just how far down the ground is frozen. Some think it is almost 50 feet, while others say that heavy snow insulated the ground and it’s not too bad.

Either way, that moisture has to come up through the ground and evaporate before teams can start playing baseball, softball and soccer on the fields.

If you don’t allow that to happen, you can tear up the fields and make them unplayable.

Golf will also be in a similar situation as owners are not likely to let high school golfers out on the course if they might cause damage.

Let us hope we get some warm weather soon so we can enjoy our spring sports.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.