By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – Mother Nature sure is finicky.
As I was covering the De Pere/Bay Port baseball game in 40-degree weather April 4, I was glad there weren’t two feet of snow on the ground and the game was actually played.
It was brutal in the wind, but I found a little shelter in the press box after four innings.
Fast forward a week and all that changed with the April 11 snowstorm.
It wasn’t the monster blizzard we received last April, but it was enough to set things back a week.
When De Pere played Ashwaubenon in softball April 2, De Pere head coach Matt Eakin told me it was the first time his team had been outside on a field this spring.
A number of area baseball and softball teams headed south for spring break, so they got in a handful of games before returning north.
The weather has also wreaked havoc with our coverage of sports.
Soccer is probably the least affected by rain/snow, but tennis, baseball, golf, softball and track and field teams can’t safely compete on slippery surfaces – or on surfaces covered with snow.
I was looking forward to covering three baseball/softball games April 11-12, but those got wiped out.
In total, four games from those two days were wiped from our coverage.
If you notice in the sports pages, it might cause one school or sport to get more coverage than the others, simply because other games got canceled/postponed.
I do plan games ahead of time, but even the most well-laid plans often change – it can be frustrating and lead to a lack of coverage for one school.
It’s also a fine line in what games we cover.
We as a staff want to cover all schools, but we also must look at which games are going to be the most competitive and most important.
I was a cross-country skiing coach in Rhinelander for five years before moving to Howard in 2007.
Looking back, I’m not sure what was worse – trying to teach high school athletes how to ski with no snow or being a spring sports coach in Wisconsin.
At least we could ski on the frozen lakes, so my vote goes to being a sports coach in the spring.
The southern part of the state definitely has an advantage over its northern counterparts.
Trust me, the weather will change and games will be covered.
At times, game stories don’t make it into the print edition due to space restrictions.
For any up-to-date game stories, log on to gopresstimes.com.