Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Coaches, players and fans have got to wonder where all the warm weather has been this spring.

In fact, one group in particular has got to be wondering and that is our area track teams.
With very few exceptions, it has been pretty cold throughout April and the beginning of May.

But despite the cool temperatures and the nearly always windy conditions, our athletes are been putting up some pretty nice numbers on the track, on the court or on the diamond.
Still, with the state tournaments approaching, it would be nice to see some warmer weather so that these athletes can start fine tuning for a post season run.

There are many who believe that the spring sports season begins away too early.

We would have to agree.

Student-athletes used to begin preparing for competition in the month of March with the actual contests beginning the first week of April.

Now the sports schedule has been pushed back into the third week of March for actual contests and that is just too early.

Not only has the schedule moved back into March for competition, it seems to have been extended farther into June with the state finals for baseball and softball ending the second weekend of the month.

Proposals have been floated like a balloon from time to time as to condensing the spring sports season and moving it deeper into April for the start and concluding at the end of June.

That certainly would take much of the cold weather out of the equation most years, but by extending the season another two weeks into June would create another issue – having to coach athletes who are already out of school.

The problem there of course would be how do you keep kids from going out and doing silly things all day long and then playing sports in the late afternoon and evenings?

There probably is no good answer to this question, but condensing the seasons would be a logical step.

We have heard for years about how many games high school teams play.

With the economic times we live in and an uncertain future about school funding, perhaps it is time to take a serious look at this issue.

Do teams really need to play as many games as they do and travel as much as they do?

The answer is probably not.

But until they are limited in travel for non-conference games, teams will continue to traverse the state in search of competition.

And until the state athletic association reconfigures the amount of contests teams can play, they will continue to play the maximum.

So maybe it’s time to float another balloon up there and see if this is an issue that can be dealt with in a manor that is both a good deal for our student-athletes and a good deal for our school districts financially.