Spring Sports Delayed Throughout the County
NORTH POLE, Mass. -- High School athletic directors are a little of everything: part teacher, part coach, part administrator and, this time of year, a whole lot meterologist.
The forecast looks dim as area schools get ready for this week's scheduled start of the spring sports season.
Some A.D.s already are canceling events for the rest of the week based on the conditions of fields that are often covered with snow.
An email from Lee A.D. Art Reilly to his colleagues on Sunday afternoon touched off a flurry of responses.
"All games/matches scheduled to be played at Lee this week are postponed," Reilly wrote. "I will probably be cancelling games for next week later this week but our tennis courts are clearing, and it is possible that we begin playing tennis on schedule at Lee in a couple of weeks.
"Our softball and baseball fields have actually been cleared of snow (snow blowers by our grounds staff) but they are still a long way from being playable."
That elicited replies ranging from "Our fields have zero chance" (Drury's Chris Barbarotta) to "I am a firm believer in Climate Change ...... so when the climate changes my fields will be ready" (Monument Mountain's Paul Gibbons).
Hopefully, some of this week's cancellations will have make-up dates assigned soon. In the meantime, games will be marked as "postponed" on iBerkshires.com's schedule and remain in the system. Spectators would do well to check with schools to make sure games are still being played before heading out.
The good news is that schools have a little more time to schedule those make-up games. Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association extended the spring season in every sport -- adding an extra six or seven days before the seeding date in each instance.
Baseball and softball, which originally were to have a cutoff date of May 25, now can play games through May 31. In boys and girls lacrosse, the cutoff date was moved from May 21 to May 28.