Spring Training Affected by Weather

With the two snow storms, it caused the majority of the spring sports to start later normal. Many teams have had to practice in gymnasiums indoors, others in parking lots Also, some track meets, tennis matches and soccer games have had to be rescheduled.

Most all sports, had multiple practices inside. Softball, Baseball and Girls’ Soccer were all forced to hold tryouts indoors, rather than on their outdoor fields.

Track and baseball were the first team able to practice outdoors, when they went to work with their shovels and cleared off the track and the tarp covering baseball field. Tennis has had the longest wait of all, with it either being too cold or their court being uncleared.

“We could only peal have of the [tarp] back at first,” senior baseball player Michael Steinbacher said.

Steinbacher said that with the varsity, junior varsity and C team all in the gym during indoor practices, in would get very crowded and there was limited time to go through drills. The outfielders were able to go outside and use the turf to take fly balls, but not much else. He also explained that hitting a cage indoors is much different

“You swing the same, but the vision is different. ” Steinbacher said. “Hitting with a white wall isn’t as easy as hitting on a field.”

When the track team first shoveled, they were only able to clear off lanes one through four. Before the track was cleared, the team was only able to practice indoors. Some distance runners were able to run on the streets on a couple of occasions, but not every practice.

“[Not being able to use the track] definitely affected a lot of people,” senior Carter Olander said. “It affected their mindset, because they haven’t been on the track that much yet.”

Olander trained in the winter, along with many other runners on the team. He believe those who trained in the winter have a good base that they can work off of.

The tennis team has been the most affected by the inclement weather, having the majority of their practices canceled due to snow on the courts or it being too cold to play. The team has also had three matches postponed a week because of the poor conditions. They have only been able to get one match in, that being against SM South on Tuesday, April 2.

The soccer, lacrosse and softball teams were allowed to use their fields once all the snow had melted and the mud was at a minimal amount. Soccer and softball were only able to use the school gyms during the poor weather, while lacrosse jumped from multiple practice locations. With their normal Mission Valley field engulfed in snow, the team took to the parking lot of Mission Valley, St. Paul’s school gym, the American Royal and the Roeland Park dome.

“When we practiced in the parking lot we had to wear tennis shoes and couldn’t wear cleats,” junior lacrosse player Frank Esberg said. “The snow was somewhat melting, but there was still spots of water everywhere and people would being slipping.”

The lacrosse team also used a different type of ball called a no bounce ball when playing in gyms or in the parking lot.

“[The no bounce balls] were brown actually, so in gyms they would be hard to see,” said Esberg. “It also made catching harder and they would get slippery.”

With the soccer team, all of their tryouts were held indoors. And they were unable to practice outdoors until a week before their first game.

“[During tryouts] we missed out on the individual stuff this year,” coach Jamie Kelly said. “The one thing we missed out on was the goalkeeping.”

Though the girls did miss out on time outside, Kelly believed it helped them in other aspects in the preparation for their first game.

“I think it helped the girls be more focused going into the game,” Kelly said. “Of course there was nerves, but I thought that our nerves went away pretty quickly.”

The girls ended up beating Lawrence 10-0.