Winter left overs put delay on spring sports

After a long, cold, and snowy winter, the spring sports season at Lyndon will see an unusually late start this year. 

At this point in time, it looks like mid-April is the best-case scenario for the fields being ready for practices.   At this time last year, the fields were essentially ready for game-time, which makes this year's situation that much tougher to take.

"We do what we can do," said Athletic Director Chris Ummer about the current situation.  "Unfortunately, people are remembering last year; in my 25 years here, last year was the earliest we were on fields here.  People can't look at last year; freshmen are looking at last year. The seniors know better."

One possibility that was explored last weekend was maintenance trying to help the fields along toward spring readiness.  After a few minutes of work it became clear Mother Nature is out of the college's control. 

"Last weekend there was an attempt made to have the fields cleared," said Ummer.  "They got on the lacrosse field and as they were beginning to clear, they were about two or three inches of water melted under the snow. They know the rule: if you're down to grass, get off the fields.   You can't blow down to the turf.  They can blow down to a few inches of ice and snow and then the rest melts.  It's warmed up too much to get on there."

Every year brings a different set of challenges when it comes to spring sports. From snow to rain and mud to thunderstorms, any number of weather phenomena can cancel or postpone spring games.

"It was either two or three years ago that we didn't get on the fields until the teens of April," said Ummer.  "We didn't have any home contests until I think it was April 21 or 22.  I would say most often we have a winter that allows us to be on the field by the first of April with our fingers crossed. That's realistic, this year unfortunately has, as you know, been a high snow amount."

"This is the most snow I've seen this late," he said.  "We've had years where the field has been cleared by April 1, then we've had two or two and a half weeks of rain and we can't use them anyways, at least the baseball and softball fields.  What I'm hitting at is we're up against Mother Nature. If Mother Nature wants to win, we're going to lose no matter what."

At this point it looks like the season will inevitably be cut short.  Colleges across northern New England are dealing with the same problem as Lyndon. 

"The more southeast you go, the better the fields are," said Ummer.  "I know that Farmington is in a struggle right now, Johnson is in the same boat we are, there are places more south of us that have had weather delays. We were supposed to play softball and baseball there Sunday, and I talked to their AD on Monday, and she said ‘we're not going to be ready to play'."

Although the season will be cut short, which is inevitably frustrating to players who work hard to get on the field, the season is not in jeopardy at this point.  The players will eventually end up getting a chance to see some action, even if it's not at Lyndon's Skip Pound field until late April.

"We'll lose some games this year and put them on the road or cancel them," said Ummer.  "But everyone will.  And that's the benefit of scheduling 38 games, is you'll meet your minimums of 24 or 25 because there's so many more than you need.  I mean, the guys already have in 6 games."