It used to be that the most important gear for the spring sports season was baseballs, softballs, gloves, bats, and tennis rackets. This year, though, it’s even more critical to have raincoats, umbrellas, squeegees and a lot of open dates on your schedule.
With another day of rain, came another spate of cancellations yesterday, and many baseball and softball teams are on the verge of having to do some juggling to get all of their games in before the regular season is scheduled to end next week.
“It’s getting down to crunch time,” said Edward Little athletic director Dan Deshaies. “If there are any more cancellations, there could be trouble.”
EL’s baseball and softball teams are fortunate in that they had a bye Wednesday, a day they normally have games. They already had to reschedule Monday’s games with Oxford Hills to today at 3 p.m., weather permitting of course. If the deluge isn’t at least interrupted today, the Red Eddies may be looking at playing a make-up game on the Memorial Day holiday.
Edward Little and other KVAC teams may find themselves scrambling to get all of their games in. The conference’s regular season is scheduled to end on Tuesday. The next day, June 1, is the scheduled last day to play countable games, with June 2 as a rain date.
Maine Principals’ Association assistant executive director Larry Labrie said moving those dates back has not been discussed. The MPA calendar does leave a little wiggle room, because tournament preliminaries aren’t scheduled to begin until June 7.
“Obviously, if at some point an accomodation has to be made, we could look at it then, but ultimately, we’re trying to get (the schools) to get the games in,” he said.
Mountain Valley Conference schools will have a little more margin for error because their regular season is scheduled to end this Friday. Jay AD Kenric Charles said remaining games with Wiscasset, rescheduled for 4:30 p.m. today, and Mt. Abram (Friday), could be made up early next week if they have to be postponed.
“Right now, we’re on schedule,” he said.
Tennis teams in all conferences have been able to stay on schedule by moving matches indoors, and should be ready for prelim play scheduled for this weekend. The Jay girls’ team played indoors Tuesday and the boys’ yesterday. Jay High School even hosted a match between Monmouth and Hall-Dale this week in its gym.
“Luckily, everybody’s doing what they can to help out,” Charles said. “We’re having to be creative.”
Comments are no longer available on this story