Late spring has schools scrambling
Most of us have had that moment this year.
The calendar reads April, but our thermometers didn’t get the memo about winter being over. Paul Feldhausen found himself in one of those surreal moments earlier this week.
“I was supposed to work a (baseball) game yesterday, and I’m out in my driveway with a snowblower,” he said. “I go, what the hell am I doing?”
Feldhausen, an umpire and the commissioner of the Woodland Conference, told the story with a laugh. He has been grinning and bearing weather that, to put it mildly, has been unseasonably bad. It will warm up eventually, but when it does, how much of the spring sports season will be left?
The snowstorm that hit the area over the weekend wiped out most prep events this week. There already was a
long list of postponements last week. Add those to typically light early-season schedules due to spring break, and many teams haven’t seen much action since softball play started March 20 and baseball March 27.
“This is the worst that we’ve had in memory of dealing with high school sports,” Milwaukee Public Schools athletic director Bill Molbeck said of this spring.
“There is always a time during each season when you get a lot of rain or you deal with postponements for different reasons, but we’ve had this extended stretch at the beginning of the season that is going to make it tough to get in all our games.”
That said, here are three ways the snow and generally bad spring weather could affect prep sports.
Doubleheaders
The spring season is short in comparison to the fall and winter. Most conference track meets will be held the week of May 14. Softball and baseball regionals begin May 22. Assuming there aren’t many events slated for the rest of the week, that leaves just three to four weeks of the regular season left.
That might seem like plenty of time to get in games, but chances are there will be more rain days even after temperatures rise.
“In some cases we’ll be playing five days a week,” Classic 8 commissioner Dave Sternig said. “That’s where it is right now. It’s bad. I would hate to be a conference commissioner up in Green Bay or further north because basically what you’re looking at is the whole spring season shot.”
To get in more games, don’t be surprised if doubleheaders are added to softball and baseball schedules. That means one team will lose a home game,
but a date would be opened for another game or to ease the burden on officials.
“I’ve got to say a lot about our officials. They will bend over backwards to help you out if they can,” Sternig said. “It’s a dedicated group of guys.
“We’re not replacing officials. That is the No. 1 thing. I don’t know what you do. Some of our guys are really pushing it. They’re over 60. They’re still working. They know what they’re doing.”
Shorter games
Teams will be allowed to play shorter games in some circumstances. Here is how the WIAA is providing relief.
Baseball: WIAA rules define a doubleheader as two seven-inning games. This season, however, a doubleheader can be two five-inning games, if both schools agree, and still considered an official game. A single game must go seven innings.
Softball: One or both games can be scheduled for five innings.
Soccer: In the event a game must be suspended because conditions make it impossible to continue before one complete half has been played, the game will continue from that point unless both coaches agree to let the recorded score stand. If at least one half of the game has been completed when play is suspended, the game is an official game.
Pitch counts
Pitching in baseball is especially at a premium due to the WIAA’s pitching restriction.
Rules limit pitchers to no more than 100 pitches in a game. Those who throw 76-100 pitches must have three days of rest; 50-75 pitches two days of rest and 31-49 one day of rest.
“If we start piling too many games into one week it’s going to cause some problems with those teams having the number of pitchers they need to that are qualified to throw strikes on a consistent basis,” Molbeck said.