Never-ending Winter Causing Havoc With High School Spring Sports

While many people in Utah are benefiting from the state’s perpetual winter, spring sports that are trying to start their seasons are being adversely affected by the late and persistent snowfall.

Last month, Logan High School was fortunate to be able to schedule a soccer match in between snowstorms.

“[Just] trying to do what you can so kids can have an opportunity to go participate,” said Mitchell Argyle, deputy principal of Logan.

But for Argyle and the students, scheduling games hasn’t always been simple.

“Oh my gosh, it’s not going to stop! you think as you look at the weather.'”

The challenge, according to Argyle, is deciding how much the school can spend each time to try to clear the snow and ice from its fields in Cache Valley, which have mountains of snow on them.

“You remove it and then that next storm comes in and ruins all the work that got put in there,” he explained.

The spring sports schedule is difficult for track and field events, golf, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and many other sports.

“I haven’t seen this much snow ever on a baseball field,” said Coach of baseball at Highland High School Jayson Kisselburg.

Snow and muddy water are covering the fields at Highlands High School on the east side of Salt Lake City.

“We have to prepare our own fields, which I believe is the biggest source of frustration for us, unlike basketball and other sports played in the fall and winter. We must confirm the accuracy of the dirt. The fields must drain properly, the water must be removed from the field, and the field must be usable. So it puts a lot of pressure on us and our coaching staff to do those things,” said Kisselburg.

This year has been challenging for Kisselburg as the brand-new coach.

“We’ve got about two good inches of snow on the field right now,” he said. “You can see part of our field has water on the snow that has melted there.”

Even the game Highland had scheduled for Tuesday at Timpview was postponed.

“You know, my heart goes out to a lot of these kids who had to go through the whole COVD thing, and now they have weather that’s out of their control,” Kisselburg said.

Despite their own problems, Highland is attempting to assist other schools that are in even worse situations, such as Park City, by having them come down just in homes to get a game in.

“The spring sports season is running according to plan, and individual member schools that are impacted by the weather are handling rescheduling issues on a case-by-case basis. The association’s spring state tournaments remain on schedule,” wrote the The Utah High School Activities Association.

All outside club sports and recreational leagues that typically use the fields of the Canyons School District have been forced to cancel this week, according to spokesman Jeff Haney.

“We are not going to be leasing any of our outside facilities until at least april 10,” Haney explained.

He claims that it is simply too expensive to repair the harm caused by playing in the mud.

‘We’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” explained Haney. “Our community wants to use our fields and we want our schools to participate, but the weather is just not being cooperative.”

Even Logan had to postpone games scheduled for Tuesday, according to Argyle, who claims that schools are doing the best they can given the circumstances.

“When it got really cold, the snow was all but gone, but now there is some ice there. We’re attempting, I don’t know.” he said.

Argyle continued by saying that he has seen photographs of the problems that his family’s cattle ranch in the Bear Lake area has been facing.

“The majority of people haven’t seen anything similar to what you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen anything like this.” It’s a new challenge, so we’re thinking of ways to allow kids to practice and squeeze in the occasional game.”

Reference: www.fox13now.com