The lingering winter weather this spring has been an ongoing topic of conversation and also an ongoing problem for local sports teams to even get in a game.
Sports schedules have been subject to change on an ongoing basis as numerous games have been either postponed or outright canceled with snow remaining piled up on area fields.
Going into the final weekend in April, both the International Falls and Littlefork-Big Falls baseball teams had yet to play a game.
The Bronco boys and girls golf teams also haven’t yet competed in a meet.
After having several games called off, the L-BF and Falls softball teams had their season openers late this week at Lake of the Woods. The Broncos won their season opener Thursday over the Bears, 11-0.
The Bronco boys and girls track and field teams have yet to compete outdoors this spring with their only meets indoors at Bemidji State University and the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
With only about a month or less before the Section tournaments are slated to begin, Falls athletic director Don Rolando said the priority for getting games in before the tournaments begin will be playing games against Section opponents, which will be key to determining seedings.
Though the Broncos had a home baseball game scheduled for next Friday against Mesabi East, Rolando said prior to press time that he wasn’t “holding out hope” that Falls would be able next week to host a game at Scheela Field, which this week remained drifted over with snow, as did FHS’s softball and track fields.
Nearby at Rainy River Community College, snow has been cleared off the softball field to expose the field surface that also has yet to hold a game this season.
Rolando said the same isn’t being done to FHS’s fields to prevent them from being damaged, as could be the case with a vehicle making ruts in the soft ground.
RRCC’s softball and baseball teams have resorted this season to playing a number of their games indoors in the Twin Cities area. Rolando said he hasn’t checked into the availability of those indoor facilities, though it’s his understanding they are “booked solid” with several teams unable to play outside.
“Everybody’s in the same boat,” he said.
The Minnesota State High School League earlier this month released a memo with guidelines on how to handle spring sports affected by the weather.
For instance, the memo notes baseball and softball teams now have the option of being able to play five- or six-inning doubleheaders.
Broncos head softball coach Kevin Gordon noted this season has been the latest for him to have finally played a game since he became the varsity head coach in 1999.
“I’ve never seen snow this long in a season,” he said.
Gordon said the players adapted well to having to practice for weeks inside.
“The girls have been very good,” he said. “The attitude has been very good.”
Besides trying to reschedule games called off due to the weather, Gordon said the Broncos have also lost two games on their schedule because Northeast Range and Mountain Iron-Buhl were unable to field varsity softball teams this season.
The Section 7AA softball tournament is slated to start the week of May 20. Gordon noted having to reschedule multiple softball games over a few days isn’t as problematic as in baseball, because softball doesn’t have restrictions on how many innings a pitcher may pitch in a given number of days.
The softball Broncos are scheduled to face the Vikings next Friday in Littlefork, where there also hasn’t been a home softball game this season.
L-BF head coach Mike Imhof said the Vikings haven’t been able to practice outside when there hasn’t been a field ready to play on.
“(The weather has) been awful,” he said.
Imhof said a conference tournament is being planned for the middle of next month, prior to the Section 7A tournament, where L-BF could make up a number of games.
