(Image provided by the WIAA)
When compiling your daily list of people you think are in need of divine intervention, you may want to add those involved in spring high school sports in Wisconsin.
Yesterday, I was an umpire at a girls softball contest that started with a game time temperature of 39-degrees–and a wind chill of 27. During warmups (a term used very loosely yesterday), the girls were attempting to field balls while keeping their throwing hands tucked inside their back pants pockets. Required uniforms were worn over hooded sweatshirts and winter coats. Nobody wanted to swing at inside pitches because hitting one down around the trademark would have left your hands stinging for three innings. The players were miserable. The coaches were miserable. The fans were miserable. And we umpires were miserable. About two innings into the game I was behind the plate thinking, “What am I doing out here?”
And that is not good. From my perspective, I’m among a dwindling number of WIAA licensed officials. That’s why you hear the public service announcements here on WHBY encouraging people to get certified and get into the game. Every fall and winter I am sent contracts to work games starting as early as the last week in March. I accept them with a bit of chuckle, because I know full well that we are not going to play those games on those dates, either because we will still have snow on the ground or it will be 35-degrees out and athletic directors will reschedule to when they hope there are more bearable conditions. But if I’m questioning my sanity for being out in those conditions, why would someone not already involved in umpiring want to join me?
So far this season, I have had three assignments canceled due to snow on the days we were supposed to play, or three straight days of rain have left the field unplayable. The few games I’ve gotten in include one that ended shortly before severe thunderstorms rolled into the area, bringing with them heavy hail, another that was played in a heavy mist all game, along with last night’s icebox game.
That’s not good for the players and the programs either. Participation in high school sports in Wisconsin is declining. That is due in large part to fewer boys playing football–but the stick and ball sports are suffering too. They are more difficult to find success in to begin with–and to put participants out in weather better suited to duck hunting doesn’t build enthusiasm for continuing in the game. Add to that the fact that many teams couldn’t even get outside to practice before playing their first games, and the quality of the sport is hurt immeasurably by starting those seasons so early.
So why were we out there? It all boils down to one thing: there is a very limited window in which schools can play their games before the WIAA playoffs begin. And that is why I think the time has come for “spring sports” to become “summer sports” in Wisconsin.
The WIAA used to offer a summer baseball tournament. Teams involved in it would begin their seasons in mid to late May–when weather and field conditions were almost guaranteed to be better than in early spring. The season would then wrap up near the end of July. But, that was dropped in 2018. The number of schools competing dwindled as student-athletes chose to play on traveling “elite” teams during the summer, or they were part of AAU basketball programs traveling around the Midwest to play in tournaments, or it conflicted with their football off-season training programs, or it kept them from getting good summer jobs.
So now all schools are stuck with no choice but to compete in weather and field conditions not conducive to playing spring sports properly. And I’m not talking about just baseball and softball. Imagine trying to run track on a day with 30-mile an hour winds like we had last week. You think playing baseball is miserable when it’s muddy and cold? Try playing golf in those conditions. And I have seen photos from soccer games this spring where the players were dressed more for hockey on a pond and not futbol on the pitch.
And it hasn’t been just this spring. I’ve worked games in recent years where athletic directors have begged me to just “find a way” to get the game in, as we started in a drizzle and ended in sleet. We’ve had to declare warning tracks as “water hazards” because that was where all the rain pumped off the infield eventually collected into giant puddles. And I’ve seen high school golfers that could barely swing because they had ten layers of clothes on, along with stocking caps and mittens.
Yes, major league baseball starts their season just as early as the high schools. But they have heated clubhouses to retreat to in order to regain feeling in their extremities when not in the field. And there is a reason so many new stadiums are built with retractable domes. Plus, those guys are getting paid millions of dollars to deal with the elements.
So let’s exercise some common sense, WIAA, and push back the start dates for all spring sports. The least it will do is allow us to actually enjoy being on the field.
