How Spring Fling cancellation affected fans, teams and Murfreesboro area
Hotels weren’t booked solid, restaurants weren’t at capacity and traffic wasn’t backed up around Murfreesboro and surrounding areas this week.
While those things may sound like a positive to some, that’s not how it was supposed to be. Not this week.
The TSSAA’S annual Spring Fling, an Olympicstyle festival that features the state’s five sanctioned high school spring sports, was scheduled for Tuesday through Friday in Murfreesboro and surrounding areas. But it was officially canceled on April 15 because of COVID-19.
TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress drove through Murfreesboro at times during the week. All he could think about was what wasn’t happening.
“(Tuesday), I was on the phone with two staff members, talking about where we would have been, setting up for games and meeting with umpires,” Childress said. “(Tuesday) night it hit me again when it started raining and I started thinking about how we would have been dealing with getting people off (the fields) and how long it was going to rain.”
Coaches, athletes and fans from Bristol to Memphis would have flocked to the area for baseball, softball, boys soccer, tennis and track and field.
But area high school baseball fields, Starplex, Siegel Soccer Complex and MTSU’S Dean Hayes
Track and Soccer Stadium were all closed, and Adams Tennis Complex saw little activity
“It’s sad on a lot of levels,” said Matt Hagenow, whose son Ryan is a senior pitcher at Farragut and a Kentucky signee. “As Ryan’s dad, I feel bad for him. There’s no guarantees we would have made it . ... It stings for a few days, but you realize it’s water under the bridge.”
In 2019, roughly 30,000 people attended Spring Fling, while more than 1,000 were either employed by the TSSAA and local high schools or volunteered to work the event. Dozens of media also cover the event every year.
The event, which has been hosted by Murfreesboro since 2006, was expected to generate around $3.7 million to the local economy.
Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors Bureau senior vice president Barbara Wolke said Murfreesboro area hotels were at about 15-20 percent capacity during a week when they normally would have been full.
Restaurants in Rutherford County were limited to half capacity because of COVID-19 restrictions during most the week before opening up to full capacity on Friday.
Blackman High School was to host a portion of the Class AA state baseball tournament. Blaze coach Barry Vetter had high hopes of his team making the Class AAA state field while handling his own site.
“This would have been a time where, hopefully, we have been trying to figure out which JV parents would be working at our field while we were playing at (AAA sites) Oakland or Siegel,” said Vetter, a 30-year coaching veteran in the area. “To still go up to the school and mow the field and work on the facilities, knowing that it's not happening, it's a sobering thought.”
Host baseball sites receive 100% of parking and concessions and 10% of the gate. Vetter estimates losing from $6,000-$8,000 by not having Spring Fling.
There would have been 32 team champions crowned during the week, with an additional 102 individual champions in track and field/decathlon and tennis.
Loretto coach Gary Lamm was going for a fifth consecutive trip to the Class A state baseball tournament, but he retired following the spring sports shutdown.
“I think we had another good shot of getting back to the state tournament,” said Lamm, who coached Loretto for 26 seasons and won a state championship in 2017. “Who knows what would have happened if we got back there. There are always some outstanding teams.
“One of my kids asked me, ‘Do you want to go out like that.' I said, ‘Yeah, we were 2-0 and had a no-hitter in our last game.' It was a good time.”
Lamm said Loretto would book hotel rooms six to seven months in advance for Spring Fling.
“There is nothing like playing in the state tournament,” Lamm said. “It's one of those things you look forward to. It would have been nice to retire up there, I guess.
“The thing about the state tournament is our kids getting to experience what it's all about. The students from the high school and the fans and parents all travel there to watch us play. It's one of those things that's never a given. It's just special when you make the state tournament.”
Getting to see other teams and other sports is another thing that makes Spring Fling special for those traveling.
“It's just an atmosphere,” said Christian Brothers soccer coach Nick Glaser. “That first night as we're coming out there to support other Memphis teams the lights are coming on. There's five or six games games going on. You know all those other kids from schools across the state.
“You're constantly checking scores and seeing who's beating who and usually there's Lausanne or St. George's or ECS there, too, so it's kind of cool to mingle and interact with them.”
Clarksville's softball team, which reached the Class AAA tournament in 2013 and 2016, fell short of a trip to Spring Fling in 2019, despite going 39-2. This season would have been about redemption.
“Its hard to put into words what losing Spring Fling means,” Clarksville coach Brian Rush said. “We felt like we had a good shot to get there and win it, and I know a lot of teams would feel that way, but we were 39-2 last year and had just about everyone returning.
“The worst feeling is not getting the opportunity to even prove it on the field. It hit us hard. And it's still disappointing. It's going to take a long time to get over.”
While Spring Fling is expected to return, that's little consolation to 2020 seniors or teams and individuals who will never make it again.
“We miss being there and watching the kids compete,” Childress said. “The kids are devastated, but we are just as much.”
“I told some parents last year, ‘It's a whole different level of nerves,'” added Hagenow, whose family would bring a camper to Murfreesboro to stay. “I'll miss going through that.”
USA Today Network - Tennessee’s Tom Kreager, Aaron Torres, Khari Thompson and George Robinson contributed to this report.