Barring an occasional weather cancellation, it is non-stop for our area sports teams between now and June, when the spring sports season wraps up with state tournament action.

It is hard to believe that we are just days away from May.

Thanks to some bad early weather, teams have struggled to get games, both because of it being wet and being cold.

Some sports have already filled up the few make-up dates they had on the 2019 calendar.

There have been some early season surprises among the six schools that Leader Publications covers.

The Niles baseball team opened the season 0-4 before sweeping St. Joseph in a SMAC West Division doubleheader.

Buchanan, a district champion last season, opened the season 6-0 under the direction of new coach Jim Brawley.

Only two-time defending state champion Lakeshore has been able to beat the Bucks. Both of the games were close and competitive, so I expect the Bucks to do some big things this season.

Dowagiac’s softball team is 3-8 heading into Wolverine Conference South Division action today against Edwardsburg.

The Chieftains have struggled in nearly every phase of the game so far this season. I am hoping coach Mike Behnke and his staff can turn things around quickly.

Speaking of Edwardsburg, the Eddies got off to a quick start, but ran into some trouble this past weekend as they went 0-3 against some quality competition at the Lakeshore Invitational.

Edwardsburg could take out its frustrations on the Chieftains today, which would be bad for Dowagiac as it heads into the meat of its schedule.

It is hard to believe with the type of weather we have had this spring that the Wolverine Conference track teams are halfway through their schedules.

There have been some solid performances despite the chilly temperatures.

Dowagiac had an athlete who is at the top of their individual events heading into the second half of the track season. The Chieftains’ DeOrdray Henry turned in the top 300-meter intermediate hurdle time against Plainwell, Otsego and Paw Paw with a time of 43.1.

While some sports, like track, are at the midway point of the season, most of our teams are just getting into the heart of their schedules, especially when it comes to division and conference races.

I cannot wait to see what transpires over the final month of the regular season.

I do know that there will be some exciting games and matches in the month of May.

You can count on that.

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